I recently bought a 1/35 model of the Jagdpanzer Tiger (P) Elefant tank hunter. I've nearly completed the model, which I will be using in a dio from the eastern front, probably involved at Kursk. My question is: what color(s) should I paint the model? The manual suggests dark sand with green; that seems appropriate for a Sicilian setting, but not for the Eastern front. So, any suggestions?

hiya boomstick.

Im not that into german armor. but maybe you can make it sand with green and then put over a nice winter wash?

Hello and welcome to the site!
By the time of Kursk, the Germans had adopted a (usually) three tone camouflage scheme of a dark yellow base oversprayed with a random pattern of olive/medium green and reddish brown stripes. Sometimes only one of the overspray colors was used. It seems pretty rare to see all yellow elephants. I know that several companies, including Model Master and Tamiya, produce paints that are very suitable or even specifically designed for German armor camo.
Hope this helps!

Dark yellow with green would have been appropriate for even the russian scene, the battle of Kursk started in summer and even though the elefants were still ferdinants they probalby had this sceme. Besides this elefants mostly fought in Italy. But try these two sites for more info:

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/pz6.htm
http://www.missing-lynx.com/panzer_facts.htm

Nearly all pictures of Ferdinands that I've seen from Kursk show the vehicles in Dunkelgelb with sprayed stripes of dark green over it. Remember, Kursk Ferdinands did not have the bow ball machine gun mounting. Following Kursk, the surviving vehicles were retrofitted with the machine gun and renamed Elephants.
The camouflage used in Italy was very similar to Kursk, green stripes over dark sand yellow. Some vehicles that again saw service in Russia had the green pattern replaced by red brown patches and bands.

What vehicle are you building the Ferdinad ot the Elephant? No elephants at Kursk...as for the camo the yellow and dark green was the most common around Kursk but it depends on which Vehicle you are doing .As for winter camo's the only time I saw these vehicles with a winter camo was in January of 44 just before they were refitted .Just a point too ..Not all Elephants went to Italy ..only the first platoon went ,leaving the 2nd and 3rd to go back to Russia where they really held thier own ..the first platoon was tranfered back to Russia to join up with the rest of the 653 .

hth
Rick

I want to thank everyone for their advice; I found all of it helpful. I realize now that I'll be building an Elefant in Italy; I was unaware of the addition of the MG34 bow gun before that. It just means I'll have to plan a new diorama!
Thanks again, everybody!

here is a cool site with a lot of camo pics
they have aout 5 drfiernt Elefant colors and camo pattens
the color is dark yellow.because after 43the germans went to dark yelllow,
no matter if it was on the easten front or initaly



http://bsdi.usppp.com/wwiiscalemodels/schemes/panzertarnung.html

Dunklegelb (dark Yellow) as a base with either green or redbrown is correct for Kursk. Avoid the whitewash; Kursk occured in the summer of '43.