It's assumed that the Ersatz M-10's were painted OD. Where did the Germans get stocks of OD as they had none in their inventory. They did have olive green (Olivegrun). Is it possible the Ersatz vehicles were actually painted that color? Or did they mix their Dunklegelb (ocher) and mix with black to make a form of OD?

They sourced a number of captured US vehicles, along with uniforms, weapons, and ammunition. They recruited English speaking soldiers from throughout the entire German military. It's not inconceivable that they had some small amount of captured OD paint available from any number of sources - Tunisia, Sicily, Italy, previous actions in NWE, perhaps even captured Soviet Lend-Lease stocks.

However, with the work and other resources invested in the "ersatz" M10's and "vis-mod" StuG III's, I think it's most likely that they mixed their own OD paint on the spot. The guys doing the work in the shops would have been perfectly capable of this.

As you note, it would not have been an insolvable problem or even particularly difficult- black and yellow ocher pigments or paints mixed together. A few gallons of paint against the other resources gathered and used would have been a minor issue, I think.

Just speculation on my part, though.

Everyone aprenticed as a painter and decorator for 3 years in those days and today in Germany has to be able to mix every shade of colour with the base colours red, green and blue! As did my father in law - very useful during refurbishments! Long ago he was a 17 years old Flakhelfer and has to paint his barracks when not engaged at the AA-guns.
I'm sure he could mix OD if he has a pattern!


Michael

Actually, at that point they only had two operational Shermans, which they apparently didn't use, which is why they had to make "ersatz" M-10's and funny StuG's. Once the offensive was under way, the Germans had any number of abandoned US vehicles to use (and some halftracks were actually recycled by some units), but it was way too late to transport these captured vehicles to the advanced Operation Grief troops.

Uhh...primary colors are Red, Yellow, and Blue! Yellow + Blue = Green.

Sorry, red, green and blue!

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_color



Michael

Actually, at that point they only had two operational Shermans, which they apparently didn't use, which is why they had to make "ersatz" M-10's and funny StuG's. Once the offensive was under way, the Germans had any number of abandoned US vehicles to use (and some halftracks were actually recycled by some units), but it was way too late to transport these captured vehicles to the advanced Operation Grief troops. [/quote]


Hello everybody,

I think the point is, that by this time the Germans have had made quite some experience with american troops and their vehicles. And if one keeps in mind, that the germans had time to rebuild a dozen Tanks to M10lookalikes and time to forfeit american equipment and documents, one should think that they also had the time and abilities to develope some cans of paint. Skorzeny himself is quoted with some very negative remarks about the "camouflage"-abilities of the Ersatz-M10 and I think the paint was not the most important issue here. The germans also were in possession of some M8/M20, some Halftracks and stuff like Jeeps, trucks and Motocycles before the start of the operation. So, plenty of original olive drab-samples...

so, I definitely would go with olive drab and no other colour.

Best Regards

Dennis

For light, I'd agree with you. However, for paint (or printing) the colours are cyan, magenta and yellow - as the link you posted points out, many artists use red, yellow and blue instead.

More specifically, red, green, and blue are

"projected light primary colors", as in "RGB video", TV, and the computer screen (monitor) you are viewing this trivia on!

For most painters and graphic artists, while the technical primary colors are magenta, cyan, and yellow, the practical common paint primaries are red, yellow, and blue.

Those German shop-painters surely had on hand stocks of dunkelgelb, some brown(s), and some greens, including one or more "olive" shades... they should have been easily able to mix up something that looked pretty much like OD! Isn't this what many of us modelers do - mix up our own version of "US OD"?

The color needn't have been exactly right to "fool some of the guys some of the time" - long before some "off color" was recognized, about any GI close enough to think "gee, that tank doesn't look like it's the right olive color to be one of ours" would probably have identified a couple other more glaring differences... those road wheels, the sheer hugeness of the "ersatz 10", the many wrong shapes and angles, etc.!

Bob