Does anyone know why the German AFV's at Aberdeen MD. are painted that wierd white/pink/tan color? Was it just a load of extra paint they had laying around because it looks awful! That place would be a fantastic place to visit if the vehicles were in original color!

Aberdeen have been repainting their collection virtually since they got hold of them - at first they tried to make it match the original paint, then they stopped doing even that. The original repainting has caused endless chaos - for those of you that have 'D-Day to Berlin' the strange Jagdpanzer IV scheme with the criss-crosses in one of the colour plates is totally Aberdeen and not authentic at all.

There is also the urban legend of the 'mad sergeant' who went around painting the DAK palm and swastika on any German AFV he could find.... allegedly

I think the weird paint is just a base coat to keep the collection from rusting away further until they can restore them. I think they periodically haul one inside for restroration.
Color aside, it is still an armor modelers dream. I mean they have a Jadgtiger and the Leopold. Great displays in the museum itself too.

Shaun

Here are a couple of shots that I have taken at Aberdeen in the late 40's or early 50's before the vehicles were repainted.





Cheers
Darren

They scraped a Karl with the rail transporter

I hope to get there this summer. My wife and I are planning to go for a drive threw the states and Aberdeen is one of the stops on my list. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm tanks

Fantastic,got anymore Darren

...um yeah, Please? Darren, you do realize that you have some pretty sacred pics there. Sacred. Wow. woooow. Thanks for those 2 glimpes into the past.

There's another colour shot of 332 here, together with a very wobbly video clip. Having spent time comparing the various pictures of 332 I'm not sure that I agree with the comments about repainting the writer makes..... (IMHO)

http://www.ss501panzer.com/Saga_of_332.htm

Guys I do have some more color shots taken at Aberdeen during late 40s early 50s time period which I will happily post when I get home from work tonight.

I will say however that the photos purport to be the original paint schemes, but I have no way of determining this conclusivley.

Cheers
Darren

I don't think Aberdeen has any intention of restoring the vehicles out there to any degree of originality. I believe they have them out there and all they do is paint them every once in a while to prevent rust. If you want accuracy you would have to go to the tank museums in France and England

I don't know why they chose that color scheme, but if it's suposed to keep them from rusting, then it's not working, not even a little. I have been there a few times, and I think it's disgusting the way these rare old beasts are just rotting away. It's such a shame.

Actually, you are wrong. They have been pulling vehicles off of the field regularly and then restoring them fully and properly.

There are a few reasons why it takes so long. First of all is money. The "do more with less" attitude of the previous administration forced installation commanders to rob base operations support money to support mission requirements.

Second is the environmental reasons. Dr. Attwater told me that there was some sort of limit on the amount of water they could use to blast off the old paint, rust and leftover petroleum products residing in the hulls. The storage tanks, filter system and water reclamation was a finite amount and once used up, they had to recycle the water and begin again.

The majority of vehicles they are restoring are being placed on display throughout the post instead of parked in the field adjacent to the museum. There are plans to build some sort of covered display area as well. They intend to build the place first, then do vehicles so they will have a place to sit without being exposed to the environment.

Of course with BRAC and the Ordnance Center and School moving to Ft. Lee, the truth may change.

Caution is advised even then, for example the Imperial War Museum's Matilda which has an eye-catching but flawed Caunter scheme. The sky-blue should be pale green....

Researching and applying accurate colour schemes is costly in both time and resources and museums sadly don't have much of either. I could insert a rant about dumbing-down of historical research in favour of box-ticking here, but I'll save you that....