I found what I am doing for the Ardenenes Offensive what where the main colors of German stuff. I think they were grey but theres so many kinds of grey I don't want to have them look wrong for my first campaign.

Thanks

Happy Modeling

By the time the Ardennes offensive came everything should have been in Panzer Yellow (Dunkelgleb) Model Masters #2095 or some camo pattern with that as a base.

The notion of Panzer Gray re-appearing near war's end is thought to be so much urban myth.

Depending on sources, colors varied from overall yellow, to overall primer red with yellow or green cammo (depending on availability), to overall primer green with yellow and red cammo, again depending on availability of paints.
I recall reading somewhere that black and/or white might also be applied over the red or green or yellow base as an expedient measure. Would make sense for an urban cammo!

A lot depended on what the factories actually had available so as to conform to the order of the day for what they were building.

That said, I wouldn't completely rule out the myth of Panzer Gray being applied as a cammo over the other 3 "basic" colors, as we certainly haven't seen every color pic ever taken in Germany in the final year of the war. But I'd doubt there were any overall gray KTs or Panthers, as there probably wasn't enough gray paint stock lying around.
JM2cents.

i dont think everything was panzer yellow, the panzer grey was still quite common a lot of armor was a mix of grey,dark yellow, green and red brown.

I am doing a Sd.kfz 7 8ton Half Track and the M88 gun what is the right thing to paint. I have alot of choices but Camo is not my thing so I might try it and if it fails what 1 color scheme would work well with the 2 peices. I am going to pick up my order tommorrow and need to find a paint so I have it.

Thanks everybody

Happy Modeling



PS Hope your campaigns are going well

Your'e probably very safe with a mono-tone scheme.

Panzer Gray was the order of the day as the base color until the early spring of 43, then the factories were to send everything out in Panzer Yellow base.

Despite the popularity of the 3-color schemes with modeler's, the reality was that there were a lot of German vehicles in overall panzer yellow.

Most, if not all, of the brand-new MBT's for the Ardennes Offensive left the factories in overall red-brown primer with patches of green and yellow. And in the case of some of the Tiger ll's of s.SS Pz. Abt. 501, ambush spots over that same color-scheme. (Note that it seems that only tanks with a hard-edged camo job recieved the ambush spots. Those with a soft-edged {as in air-brushed} job didn't seem to recieve the spots). There is at least one pic of a Panther in a base color of green with another camo color applied. AFV's built in foreign countries, such as the Hetzer in Czechoslovakia, were finished with stocks of local national colors, which varied from the German colors. Getting back to the Ardennes, older vehicles retained their original paint jobs, so that in a single unit you might see several different vehicles all with very different camo schemes. With your choice of vehicles, overall German yellow would work, with a lot of dirt, chipped paint, and wear spots.

To further confuse the topic, when all new German equipment was ordered to be painted yellow, the order also went out that existing equipment should be re-painted as and when possible. Many units in the field did not receive (enough) supplies to paint all or some of their vehicles. At any rate only frontline equipment was re-painted to save supplies. Vehicles build prior to the spring of 1943 would have been grey, and stayed so untill re-painted. Some (many?) were never re-painted or only received a partial paint job, as camouflage. And then again, any vehicle returned for refitting or repairs would be fully updated to the latest standards. As for the 8 ton Halftrack ,and M88( ? 88 mm flak?) gun, they would probably have been re-painted by this time, but hard to tell what. Dunkelgelb (with or without camouflage) is a safe bet, but Grey is also probable. If you choose Grey, remember that the vehicle and gun would have been around for a while, and the finish should be accordinly. You would not find a prestine Grey vehicle in 1944...

Cheers
Henk