Hi,

Were the camo colours on these spray painted or hand painted in the field?

My finer spray painting ability is not what it could be and I was hoping I could get away with a pretty ordinary looking camo job.

Any thoughts?

Kind regards
Digger

From the info I can find, most paint jobs were done in the filed, and not all done spraying.

For a spray effect I use a small stipple brush (A brush with the end cut off flat) and use slighty thinned out paint, looks OK with practic.

From 1935 to early 1943, German vehicles were painted German Gray (Dark Yellow for the Afrika Corps). From 1943 onwards, they were factory sprayed overall in dark yellow. A camouflage of red brown and dark green was applied by some units after receiving them. On the Normandy front captured US olive drab was also used. This was usaully sprayed, but as there was no specific pattern it was left to individual units.

Lee Loveridge

Yes.

To elaborate: As was mentioned, 1943 on vehicles were painted dark yellow at the factory. Units received supplies of Rotbrun and Dunkelgrun paint paste. This had the ability to be thinned with water or solventl such as gasoline. The amount of thinning determined the depth of the color. There were no specific patterns decreed, as we have today with the 3 color Euro pattern or with the old MERDC. Eachunit or even vehicle commander was allowed the freedom to camoflage his vehicle(s) to meet the environment. Paint was applied by spray guns, brush and even brooms. I think I've even read of paint just being splashed on.
So ultimately, with German vehicles, you are almost totally free to choose the pattern you want, or you can get a reference and replicate that.
Bottom line, have fun with it.

During 1943, specifically during the Battle at Kursk, Germany changed their base color from
the normal "panzer grey ". The armor and other vehicles that came off the production line were painted in "sand-yellow " first then followed by the darker shades such as "dunkelgelb " ( dark-yellow ) and yellow-olive for base coat's. Right up until the end of the war most unit's retained individual marking's & coloring practices.
If your lijke me and some other modelers, who prefer to model our armor according to historical accuracy, I can suggest that you gather reference on the vehicle and unit it served with and the color pattern that they used. ............... if your just modeling for your own personal satisfaction than you can use any color that please's you.

- ralph

Thanks again for your help.

Kind regards
Digger