Hello,

I took a look at the history of WWII German Camouflage a couple of years ago. RAL from Germany had an excellent explanation on their web site about the how, why and science behind the creation of the panzer 3 color dot ambush camo pattern used to hide vehicles from Allied aerial observers – photo recon cameras and photo interpreters. Which proved to sometimes work against the Allies in the ETO in places like Belgium and protect the Axis tanks from discovery in their staging areas (and helped cause Allied command mistakes like dropping Market Garden paratroopers on 2 Nazi panzer divisions and helped hide the Ardennes Offensive panzer buildup from prying Allied eyes). But most panzer camo in the ETO was used to try and hide vehicles from Jabos (fighter bombers) and Allied artillery spotters.

Here is an interesting WWII primer from the US Army on the subject: http://www.lonesentry.com/camouflage...emyaerial.html

None of this seems to relevant to the backyard battle field though, a bright shiny chrome pink tank has just as much chance to win as a masterful painted realistic ambush pattern camo panzer.

But it is a lot of fun to paint model tanks in camo, whether it actually helps or not.

John