I've seen quite a bit of conflicting information on this. Were PzKpfw 35(t) used during the Polish and French campaigns repainted in solid panzer gray or in the two-tone panzer-grey/braun scheme? What is the latest and greatest?

C[ ]

Vince

These PzKpfw 35(t) were nearly all panzer grey.There was a few that was panzer grey with braun camo but this was very uncommon.

Vince;

The photo evidence from Poland and France is rather inconclusive - but then the brown-over-grey scheme doesn't show up very clearly in most early-war B&W photos, so...

Like the Pz. Kpfw. 38(t), the -35(t) was brought into service before the invasion of Poland. In the -35(t) case, these were in-service tanks seized from the Czech Army in 1938. The multi-color Czech scheme was over-painted in the base dark grey when the tanks were accepted into the end-user units. The question is whether the receiving units and crews went on to apply the per-regulation 1/3 brown...

As it turns out, almost all vehicles, including all tanks and armored cars, were factory-painted in the base grey and issued wearing only grey, and each receiving unit was provided a paint budget up through the end of 1939 to purchase and apply the specified brown paint. By early 1940, these paint-funds were apparently mostly withheld as the Germans had determined that the Polish war had actually become much more costly than originally anticipated, so the Wehrmacht found itself needing to scrounge up every Mark it could - and brown paint budgets went to the chopping block.

One result of this was that some equipment already on-hand in early 1940 didn't get brown paint, and new equipment issued after Mar 1940 apparently almost never got brown paint. So some German equipment in France was grey-only, while other pieces were brown-over-grey. Presumably equipment on hand before Sept 1939 was fairly likely to have been painted in the regulation scheme.

By me, this argues that a Pz.35(t) would have had a fair chance of being brown-over-grey, as these tanks were already in units prior to the invasion of Poland. In MHO, it can be safely done.

But there is little compelling photo evidence, so...

PS: The same argument is of course pertinent to the earlier ausf. of Pz. 38(t)(A and B), which were in service for Poland... And it seems that folks accept that early-war Pz.38(t) could be painted brown-over-grey...

I have the Bronco -35 kit, and plan on doing it brown over grey. But that's me!

Cheers! Bob

During the invasion of France and the Low Countries, the pattern was dark brown (1/3) over dark grey (2/3) in a cloud pattern:
http://www.missing-lynx.com/panzer_facts.htm

This is confirmed in this intelligence report:
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/missinglynx/viewtopic.php?p=1444587#p1444587

See also Panzertracts 1-2 for a color drawing of the pattern.

Gentlemen,

Thank you very much for your thoughtful and well-reasoned responses. After looking over the evidence you presented, I am going to opt for the two-tone scheme. Much obliged!



-Vince

Concord Publishing seems to think at least some of them were two-toned, for what that's worth;

Thanks for posting that image, Paska!

That is "exactly" the scheme and period I plan to build my Pz.35(t) around. I actually recall seeing that specific image and its campaign reference (Poland 1939) in the Concord Pubs - which I have "all of" - and which I cannot yet access given as they still reside in boxes in storage after moving across country... And yes, the posted image conforms to the standard applications of the brown-over-grey regulation paint scheme in effect up through June of 1940.

It doesn't constitute any absolute "proof" that the 1938 bicolor scheme was actually applied to these tanks, but we should keep in mind that the bicolor scheme was "regulation", and that all units were still getting their "paint funds" up to the attack into Poland. So it is wholly reasonable to expect that such salient and "important" (both militarily and for PR, "image" and troop moral purposes) items such as an actual working combat tank (as versus a small lightly-armored and lightly-armed training machine such as the Pz.I) would actually get "priority treatment" and get painted to look the part. Appearance counted back in that era, as it does today!

Cheers! Bob

If I would have taken the extra step and actually looked for this vehicle, I would have found this;



Other than on the turret side, it sure is hard to see the brown, but it is there.