Does anyone know what the Ferdinand's interior main color is. Amazing Hobby calls out Mig 008 which is the exterior color Dunkelgrau. Just checking. Thanks

PS, their Ferdinand kit is nice. Nice rolled steel texture to exterior, too

In general, ALL German closed-top AFV were painted an off-white color (often called "elfinbein") on the interior walls and roof, and most attached mounts and fixtures. Floors could be painted a dark green, or left in rot-oxide reddish brown primer. From 1939, all hatch interior faces were painted the base exterior color. "Heavy metal" items - trannies, etc., - were often left in their OEM industrial satin black, or perhaps painted in a dark green. Radios were painted in OEM colors.

As the Ferdinand / Elefant were earlier mid-war vehicles, I'm pretty sure that they conformed to these general practices. Later-war vehicles apparently differed in a few cases, where the elfinbein was occasionally deleted and the interior left in rot-oxide, but this was rare, and FAIK, actually happened only in a small number of later-production StuG III Ausf G as a test to see how this would be received by the troops (in the end, this wasn't received well at all). It may also have happened in various one-offs and experimental vehicles.

Cheers! Bob

Mine is coming hopefully tomorrow, can't wait... their Fries Kran probably didn't sell well given Takom's superiority and thus they bundled with this completely unrelated but awesome Elefant with interior kit. Bleah. I'm sure they'll release the standalone soon enough to piss off us first dippers.

I thought they even printed the photos with Elfenbein as interior colors. The person matching colors just couldn't tell that apart from the Dunkelgelb could they.

Looking closer at the instructions, the upper areas are Elfenbein but the driver compartment floor and walls as well as the engine compartment are called out as Dunkelgrau. The actual color in the pic is closer to a blueish-gray

Have you seen this book?
https://www.themodellingnews.com/2019/02/panzerjager-elephant-modelling-porsches.html
Dan

Thanks Dan, even just the references were worth the price of the book, ordered!

Cody-glad to help!

Jason-please tell us about the kit.
Dan

Hi Jason I’d be wary of all Amusing Hobby's nominated colours if they have dunkelgrau as the exterior colour (your 1st post) – the box art shows a vehicle from sPzJgAbt 654 in its Kursk camo pattern of dunkelgelb & olivegrun. From memory I think the general consensus has always been off-white/cream throughout the fighting & forward compartments

As I noted in previous post. It's more than a consensus. More specifically, factory vehicle painting followed stated production regulations issued by OKW to vehicle manufacturing and refurbishment plants. These Ferdinand / Elefant types were converted from pre-production series Tiger(P) hulls at Nibelungenwerk in St. Valentin, Austria, using available pre-production Tiger(P) hulls. Those hulls would have been painted Dunkelgrau externally, and all crew spaces painted "elfinbein". The added casement and gun mount and breech elements would also presumably follow the painting regs.

One would, I think, need some very explicit and clear historical documentation to consider going to some other, non-reg internal scheme, presuming one wishes internal accuracy. Barring such, no duck-egg blue, dunkelgrau, or any other non-elfinbein interior wall color need apply.

Just imagine "working" inside a dark dunkelgrau "cave"!

Cheers! Bob

Their original Dunkelgrau hull raises an interesting opportunity... I'd assume the new exterior Dunkelgelb coat would be painted on top of the original DGrau and hence would chip that way, whereas the casemate which is newly fitted might be primed in red oxide?

I think that you could well be onto something interesting! The original hull (so the front structure and lower hull sides below the casement, but not any of the rear-end plates (I THINK... ) would indeed have been painted D-grau over red-oxide primer.

Because the Ferdinands were all originally built between March and May, 1943, some early (Mar) vehicles may well have been originally painted overall in D-grau.... Dunkelgelb became the official base-coat color as of mid-Feb, 1943, but, in practice, may not have been applied to all "new" production until perhaps May, 1943. So there MAY be some possible "mixes" to be exploited in painting and chipping of one's early Ferdi.!

Regardless of when the Ferdi was built, however, the hull would have a D-grau coat under that 'gelb. And all would have the rot-oxide beneath that.

Cheers! Bob

Amusing Hobby is calling for the INTERIOR lower hull to be Dunkelgrau, not the exterior

I'll start a post on the kit itself tonight

I hate to add any confusion (or start an argument)but I grew up 15 miles from APG and I seem to remember (I could be wrong)that when the APG Ordnance museum Elephant was cut open the bottom half of the interior ( below the sponsons/track line) was painted in RLM65. If true I don't know if that would have happened after the conversion of not from Ferdinand to Elephant and have always wondered about that.

That is definitely closer to what Amusing Hobby has in there. Similar to the blue-gray color in Ryefield's Panther G. Good point about the Elefant rebuild too...did they repaint the interior a different color?

We were talking about something different and changed topics slightly.