Hi folks! I just got the Rye Field Models Tiger 1 North Africa/Tunisia. Really fantastic looking kit and I can't wait to get started. I know that the paint schemes of these Tigers is a very controversial topic so I hesitate to even start this. But.... I am going to paint mine in the RAL8000/RAL7008 scheme. Maybe its right, maybe its not, its just what I want to do. My question to the community, does anyone have any kind of representation of the pattern of the RAL 7008? a sketch or a pic of someone else's model, anything works, I'm just trying to get a feel for something representative, get a little visual inspiration if you will.

Thanks for the help, and happy modelling!
Mike

My understanding is it was applied in country by the crews. David Byrden could comment more as he has done exhaustive research.

Tiger tanks of s.Pz.Abt. 501 and 504 weren't shipped to Africa painted RAL 7021. They were already painted in Troppen I (8000/7008) prior to arrival in Tunisia.

Right, the base coat of RAL 8000 was already in place. The 7008 was added in country. I should have been clearer.

When you enhance a good, clean photo of the new Tigers arriving to join the 501 at Fallingbostel, you can see a camouflage pattern:



I also get the impression that the tanks were painted further before being shipped to Tunisia. Certainly, they got additional parts added to them, such as turret bins and Feifels, so there was a need to paint them further.

Some of the additional painting seems to be in "Tropical 1" colours, probably RAL 7008. Note for example that Tiger 142 has its numbers applied over a brown base and then green was painted around but not inside them.

But some of the additional painting is done with the new colour RAL 8020. We can see that items including the Feifel gear are in a lighter colour on many of these Tigers.

I have not noticed many signs of repainting while in Tunisia. Certainly I don't see any Tigers getting painted overall Olive Drab. I do see Tiger 112 having repairs made to impacts, which were overpainted in (presumably) RAL 8020. It also got a new gun sleeve in that colour.



David

Just a few shots of the Tiger I finished earlier this year.
It's the Tamiya DAK Tiger with a few upgrades and Dragon DS tracks. It is my first attempt at the RAL8000/RAL7008 scheme.
I am NOT claiming that the colors and camo scheme are accurate, but I sure had fun building it!

I agree. We can not sure the camo scheme yet. And the Rye field Initial tiger kit is very good kit but not accurate in some respects. I finished this kit adding severals modifications. I researched this subject with many tiger tank reference books and WB photos in the web by my self. But I could not correct its errors perfectly.

The colours in the RFM Paint guide are wrong but then again so is the one in the Dragon Tunisian Tiger but this may have just been a printing error as I believe David Byrden advised the colours be RAL 8000/7008. Sorry David if I am incorrect here.

There are some tigers from the first company that show no variation in contrast that would suggest a two tone camo scheme but others that do. So, I would say you would be fine to paint your model in the two tone scheme as you suggested. I think the other possible colours would be a single paint scheme of either RAL 8000 or RAL 7008.

Also, there was some controversy over whether the 7th company (formerly 1st company) tank numbers were red or black like the 8th company's tanks but I am not sure if this has been resolved. David could provide better insight here.

The best, most indispensible information resources for the Tiger are David's TIGER1.INFO and Harmut von Holdt's Tiger im Focus. If you ever had any questions about the Tiger, these are the two sites which must be bookmarked.