What colour where the tigers in africa,i started out painting my tiger with a mix of olive green and dark yellow,but iv changed my mind and now i want to respray it in the common yellow colour.so what is the closest match in colour i use tamiya acrylics, thanks all

in other topic someone told me about a cool mix for that. u mix xf-59, and xf-60

Sounds good ill give it a try ,thanks for your post

it's ok
i'm gonna do that with my tiger too... i'm building one, what's the trade of that tiger of yours ? tamiya ?

overall brown is what i have seen...

the one at Bovington is this colour



it was a great day out

According to Panzer Colors, Vol.1, page 47, it mentions two Tiger 1's, one olive and one desert brown. Page 48 shows a color illustration of a Tiger 1 of the 501st. Panzer Abt. Tunisia, 1943 in overall brown.

Tigeriv,
I have seen colors of Tigers ranging from dark yellow to an almost tannish-blue color (no, really.) The barrel should be a lighter color, too, because they painted the barrel with a different paint. I read that somewhere, but can't remember where. Remember, once them suckers were exposed for to too much sand, they came out sand colored or even half primer.
Ciao for now
Rob

Yeah,

These guys are on it.

Dunkelgelb is probably wrong for Tunisian Tigers, as this color was introduced in April 1943. Factory fresh Tigers were seen in Dunkelgelb prior to this, but this would be speculative unless you could somehow prove it.

A lot of people model these Tigers in OD, which is also probably wrong. I think Italeri even calls for this color on their Tunisian Tiger kit.

Tigers manufactured by Henschel for Tunisia were painted in the "Troppen" paint scheme. This Scheme was 2/3rds Braun (RAL 8020) and one third grau (RAL 7027).

The Bovington tiger was captured in North Africa, and was painted RAL 8020 and a very light olive green camoflauge pattern. Its paint job was modeled after the actual paint that was on the tank, and the colors are so close that it is hard to see it in dated bw photos. However, Tom Jentz and others were consulted on the paint, so one would assume it is pretty accurate.

Hope this helps.

Scott Gentry

Hi TigerIV,

Look here:

Bovington Tank Museum

That is their step-by-step Tiger restoration. They found original paint on it and sent it to be matched at RAL (who's colors are not what they were in WWII).

I built mine olivgrun and then began finding sources that have refuted the green Tunisian Tiger legend.

Hope this helps.

sPzAbt 501 Tigers in Tunisia were painted in Brown (Ral 8020) but there exist photo evidence that there were also some in a Green scheme.

Model Master Enamels have excellent matches for both schemes

1) Afrika Braun MM No. 2102 (Ral 8020)
2) Field Green MM No. 1712

Hi Carlos,

I am curious, what source are you using? I am a fan of the green Tigers, so I want to find sources.

To quote another site, "The rationale for this vehicle is that the original British documentation from the captured example described it as "green". This *may* be the result of very thinned yellow paint applied over grey.
The Vanguard/Osprey from Jentz & Doyle states the Tigers were in Feldgrau & were given a thin coat of olive green, but unfortunately does not state the source for this."

Hopefully one day someone will release indisputable proof of green Tigers and blue P-51s.

I didn't believe Italeri's colours either but I found one photo in an old "World War II" publication (it was a serialised history of the war from the late 70's) of a Tiger said to be from SPA 501 in Tunisia. I've no way to scan this, but it shows a Tiger on its left side at the side of a road. The photo is taken head on and looking right down the barrel. I know old colour photos can be deceptive but the colour on the tank seems to be a light green (as in yellow mixed with a little olive green).

Interesting.

However, a word of caution.

Those cited as experts of our field of interest, those who are published and peer-reviewed, who have devoted time and effort into researching archives and documentation, now generally warn against old sources, pre-1980s. Before that a lot of research was iffy at best, a lot was based on what was in museums--museums that simply acquired artifacts from the military, artifacts that had been repainted who knows how many times by people with no knowledge, using "that looks about right" color matching.

I just read a 2002 Military Modeling article by Steve Zaloga about USA Olive Drab. In it he mentions that there is a myth of USA painting AFVs 'dark green'--a myth he stated he accidentally begin years ago. With further research he has found no evidence of dark green USA AFVs.

Dana Bell of the Smithsonian has some posts at IPMS-Stockholm about the blue P-51s. Both he and Zologa write about how vets, 60+ years later, have a hard time remembering colors they had no interest in at the time. Both have written about the risk of citing colored film of the time, due to the myriad of factors working against accurate color saturation.

And even though every country had some color film back then, that of Germany and other resource-poor lands' war correspondent film was not of the highest quaility. Many of the 'color' photos in books are actually B/W tinted with color.

The good news is that (significantly driven by model-historians I dare proffer) the mushrooming interest in researching and documenting the true hues and markings, etc., plus the opening of Eastern European archives, are leading to some very interesting finds! The Smithsonian's NASM micro-sanded each layer off of their FW-190 and discovered the fuselage wad been repainted several times. It yielded some protected samples of true RAL colors that have been documented.

Same with the Bovington Tunisian Tiger.

By and by, some of my personal favorite colors schemes have been shot down. Some are still ambiguous, and most will probabaly NEVER authenticated.

For accuracy, when in doubt, consult the pros.

When you are having fun, take liberties!

Hi Fred:

As it was posted I using as reference Panzer Colours (Squadron Signal Publications.
In Vol I they mention the Ral 8020 and that some Tigers were in Olive Green.

For the Field Green I have no reference, is just that I saw a built model and it looks very similar to a color photograph that I saw on the net.

Would it be safe to assume Tiger 1's were delivered to Afrika painted dark grey and subsequently repainted in the filed with 'Afrika Brown'?

Thanks,
Cody

My Italeri Tiger says to use FS34097, Field Green. Of course I doubt this is correct.

Cody,

Check out my earlier post. It is highly unlikely that Tigers were delivered to North Africa in Grey, although it is theoretically possible. I have 100's of pictures of Tigers in my collection, and you can argue that they are yellow, brown, green, or all of the above, but it would be a tough sell to argue they were Panzer Grey.

To be honest, my best guess is go with either the Troppen Paint scheme, or use the Bovington Tiger as a model, or go all over RAL braun. I would suggest you pick a unit or a vehicle that you can find pictures that you like, and then use it as your guide.

Hope this helps.

Scott Gentry

Budone,

I have several copies of this photo. I agree that there is green paint on this, but this vehicle is definitely not a Tunisian kitty. It has a single, centrally located headlight, zimmerit, and a machine gun mount on the commanders cupola, definitely a later model Tiger.

Hope this helps...

Scott Gentry

Thanks Scott - now I get it. :-)

Do you live near SLC or go to the SLC annual IPMS Show? I have a bud out there named Mark Gustavson. Know him?

Thanks again,
Cody

Hi Cody,

I sure do. I live in Provo, which is 45 miles south of SLC. I do go to the Gathering every year, and I usually help judge. I have a diorama I am co-authoring this year that I am really excited about. I don't know Mark by name, but I may have bumped into him a time or two...

Hope the Tiger info was helpful...

Have a great one...

Scott Gentry

I have several copies of this photo. I agree that there is green paint on this, but this vehicle is definitely not a Tunisian kitty. It has a single, centrally located headlight, zimmerit, and a machine gun mount on the commanders cupola, definitely a later model Tiger.


Thanks Scott, I'd noticed the headlight and wondered about the zimmerit but I'm afraid I didn't know enough on the subject to put these clues together that it wasn't a Tunisia model. One shouldn't always believe the captions on photos, I suppose. Interesting colour scheme all the same.

Oops, I lost Scott's quotes somehow - that first para was his!

Rich

Hi All,

The afore mentioned photo, what book is it in?

I am about to start a new thread titled 'Best Sources For Modelers', or something like that. It is not meant to be a critcism about any series, but rather I am just plain curious as to who is currently considered to be the best researched, most reliable sources today.

Please come and add your two cents, pfennings, shillings, pesos, marks, yen, etc.

JPTRR,

I think there is value in any book or any photo, I just think you need to be careful to base 100% of anything about WW II subjects, particularly German armor, without research from several different sources. I sure have been guilty of making mistakes along the way.

As to who is on target, with German armor and Tigers in particular, I would trust Spielberger and Jentz above everyone else. Particularly Tom Jentz. His series of Schiffer publications with Hillary Doyle are really fantastic.

Hope this helps.

Scott Gentry