I'm currently building Ryefield's late Panzer IV Ausf J. Were the turret interiors red primer late in the war? The kit has a well detailed gun and commander's cupola.

I believe that it would have been mostly or entirely "elfinbein" off-white or "creme-weiss" inside the turret. This was the standing painting regulation for closed-top AFV throughout the NAZI period from 1934 - 1945. There had been a short period (in 1944, IIRC) when a few tank and StuG fighting compartments were left in the rot-oxid primer after final assembly, to conserve paint and, perhaps, labor, but vehicle crew apparently complained loudly about it and factory painting directives reverted to the elfinbein interior color.

I personally have never seen any discussion or good evidence about any Pz IV being left R-O red inside after final assembly at any time, but I haven't actually searched for that possibility, so... And we should be very careful about saying "never" when it comes to German WWII armor!

That said, it's always possible that some of the very last tanks, jagdpanzers, StuGs and other closed-top armored vehicles produced skipped the final painting step(s) in the desire to hasten them off to the fronts.

I would say that, unless you were convincingly depicting a very last production tank, it would likely be more appropriate to keep the turret interior the prescribed elfinbein.

But this is all just my thoughts, opinion, and suggestion, so...!

Cheers! Bob

Bob is indeed correct on all points. They tried rotoxid interiors and the crew couldn't see a damn thing so they immediately switched back to elfenbein. This bounced the tiny interior lights around as much as possible. There is no written or photographic evidence that they ever left the turrets or fighting compartments in rotoxid

Thank you two. I appreciate the responses.

Gary