Evening all. I've been looking at the captured and reused or reconfigured guns, French and Russian, such as the M-1936/PAK36(r) in North Africa and wondered if the under paint would have been Russian green or if they would have been given a coat of feldgrau before getting the sand color. I know the top coat would have been heavily weathered so I would want the base color showing thru. Not sure if it matters , but would like to do it right. Thanks, Wayne

Not sure why they would take the extra time to paint them gray and then paint them again.
Interestingly, the M1938 (M-30) was repurposed as well, and it's primer color underneath the green is orange. Just in case you want to go down that far.

Just wondered since not all would have gone to North Africa. Also, alot of the equipment originally sent over was grey.

Wayne;

You are surely correct when you say early stuff went to Africa wearing grey (dunkelgrau)... But keep in mind that the "early stuff" shipped to Africa in Feb - June 1941... BEFORE Barbarossa began. So the early shipments did not include any captured Russian stuff. Likely little Russian stuff went to Africa before perhaps Sept - Oct 1941 or even later. Some of this stuff may well have gone over wearing dunkelgrau over its original USSR colors, but stuff bound for the DAK was already getting repainted in "Afrika" colors at the shipping depots in Italy by late 1941. What this might mean for an ex-Sov gun is that it may have been painted dunkelgrau after being captured in, say, late 1941, and months later might have been repainted in a "tropisch scheme" in Italy before shipping over in early 1942. So it's not hard to imagine ex-Sov stuff going to Africa in 1942 wearing "tropisch scheme" over dunkelgrau over original Sov green.

Thanks for the replies, yes Bob, that was kinda the scenario I was thinking of. All the pictures I've seen of the equipment in Africa showed a lot of weathering, so I thought some of the green might show. That's why I love this site, always someone with a little knowledge on details. Thank, Wayne