Hey lads,

I've asked this elsewhere but I'm hoping to get more definitive answers.

Are there any records of captured FIREFLY Shermans getting a German Dunkelgelb camo paint job? Best I can come up so far is this photo:



Which I'm guessing that this dragon kit is based off:


I have one of Dragon's early attempts at a Firefly (#6121) as a freebie in a deal but did not get decals to go with it. I have a few spare German crosses that I could place on it - but I was hoping I could do a paint job other than Olive Drab on it. Thanks folks!

EDIT: I forgot to add this one other photo. There's a lot of spare tracks on it though so I might not have enough out of the box.

Haven't seen that photo before! The Jeep in the foreground looks like Airborne or SAS.

Do you mean an all Dunkelgelb/RAL7028 camo or Dunkelgelb basecoat with Olivgrün/RAL6003 and Rotbraun/RAL8017? The former was never an official directive AFAIK, the latter was introduced in Feb '43.

The all Gelbbraun/RAL8002 'Tropen' scheme was introduced in Mar '42.

Haven't seen any... and given they would be all post-1944 summer, I doubt they had time or resources to repaint them...

Heres 3 pages that might help. beutepanzer.ru/Beutepanzer/us/M4_sherman/uk/firefly-1.htm

Thanks for the replies so far folks.




Have gone through this website but it seems that the vehicles that were reused by the germans really did just sport the original base color. I might just paint this olive drab (or british SSC15) and put german tactical markings.

The new owners must have repainted because non of the original markings - stars, serial markings, div. insignia, etc. are visible. Also, the nearest Sherman seems to have a non-standard armor plate attached to the rear of the turret which matches the color of the rest of the tank. Maybe the pictures are a little over-exposed, but the tanks look very light to be OD in color.

That’s not an armored plate at the back of that tank. It’s the Firefly extended radio box. I have closeups of these tanks. They and the spare track armor are painted in dark yellow

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but...I don't think that is a Firefly because you can't see the long barrel, which would be visible (unless you have a pic of the same tank from a different angle). And if it is a Firefly; I understand what you mean by the extended radio box on the bustle peculiar to Fireflies, but wouldn't the side of the box also be visible - it looks like that plate is just bolted, or welded, to the rear of the turret bustle. The plate also appears both wider and higher than the rear of the regular Firefly extended rear.

That is indeed a Canadian Firefly captured during the advance toward Putten. You can make out the right side of the radio box if you look closely. This tank was stored in the Netherlands after the war. Of note, the Germans affixed a Pak 40 muzzle brake on, interestingly enough.

That Firefly in the top photo is a much photographed vehicle. It appears in Culver & Murphy's "Panzer Colours", in which they say it is "original British khaki(sic) with dark green overspray". Much of the info in this range of books has now been discredited, so you can take that anyway you wish. Looking at the picture, I would say it was unlikely. My suggestion is that the olive drab was over sprayed with Dunklegelb.