WRT PzIV ausf. H and J in particular.

1. Were the inside parts of turret and hull skirts (not visible by direct observation) typically camouflaged?

2. Were the turret and hull sides that were normally obscured by the skirts from view camouflaged?

I'd imagine not but the images I have seen are obviously small, B&W, and grainy to boot so I cannot tell. I also realize paint was also applied by individual crews so who knows how many variations there were? What was the typical tank camoed like?

The only reason I can see them doing so is to protect a bit from air observation which would be a very real concern.

There was a famous color photo of I think a jagdtiger which showed it's hull side skirts off and on the ground next to it. I believe it was just primer red on the back side and I've used that as some of the only credible reference on schurzen and skirt painting period. I can't tell you about the specifics of turret schurzen.

There are pictures out there showing that at least some tanks camo'd the inside of the skirts, as well as the covered hull surfaces. I don't know how prevalent the practiced was, though.

I can't see any point in camo painting inside the side skirts on issue, although they were frequently lost in combat. There may have been susequent touching up following their loss. Since the crews or units were normally tasked with overpainting the camo pattern it's far more likely they did the least they could get away with. There was a similar post some time ago querying whether turret roofs were painted. I'm sure they were due to the Allied air superiority. As to inside the turret shurtzen, I'm not so sure. I think it's far more likely that where this appears to have been done it's just overspray from a rush job on the outside. There is a well known sequence of 12 SS "HJ" Panzer IVs which illustrates this well (the overspray I mean). Unlike the side skirts which were just hung on a rail, the turret shurtzen were welded on. This would make getting inside with a spray gun or paint brush pretty awkward.

It was common practice for the inside of both the hull and turret skirts to remain only in the base dunkelgelb but for the inside surfaces of the turret and hull to be painted. But with German tanks you can never say "never" or "always!"

Here is an example of a Pzkw IV ausf. H that has the inner surfaces of its side skirts and the inner doors of the turret skirts painted:



So the bottom line is that you could paint your model either way (correctly).

Also of note in the tank in Kevin's picture is the color of the inside of the side hatch.