Kabul Tanker

Hey Everyone,

I have started painting my Tiger, but first in Red Oxide. I am also using suede texture red oxide first to provide a texture to the metal.

I have found pictures from the factory showing Tigers driving around in this colour. I am sure the dark nature of it helps the appearance of the final paint. My question though is... how much would they dismantle the tank to paint the factory colour? i.e. behind the suspension arms, the back side of the road wheels.... is it possible these areas remained the red oxide colour with overspray of the, say Dark Yellow colour so commonly used?

Discuss....

THANKS

KT

martin g

Good question, and difficult to answer with any real sureness. The thing is with tanks, there is much generalisation, someone learns that 'most' tanks were a certain way, therefore tells the rest of us that is how it was, one should take most of this with some salt. We all know better than that, life isnt that simple. Its no real comparison but I was in the military, like many here, I hand painted all sorts of bits of kit whilst operational and I am sure, just becasue it was 50 years ago, things werent that different. Most of the time we took the care to cover primer with top colours, simple as that really. I am sure touching up occured and maybe between repairs the tank saw action so the odd area of primer that never got top coated would surely have existed. Fresh from a factory I would expect the paint job to be quite neat but field work will always look hurried or primitive, surviving tanks without modern paint jobs show very clearly that the finishes were far from tidy. Rough textures, scrapes and dents were normal, so I wouldnt worry too much, I have read that it was a rare event if the paint job the tank rolled out of the factory with was the same by the time she fired her first shots in anger., but like I said I wont generalise as I am sure it wasnt always the case.

swathdiver

These pictures are of Tiger's from Pz.Abt 501 in Tunisia, probably after they were incorporated into the 10th Panzer Division. These were tanks numbered somewhere between 250011 and 250033, All built before or during December 1942. These Tiger's were probably of the later batch as the color appears to be RAL 8020 Afrika Braun and was applied at the factory. Some People suggest the first 15-18 Tigers were originally painted in RLM 66/RAL 7021 and those destined for Tunisia were oversprayed with green between Italy and the docks in Tunisia.

oraculo

Ohhhh!!!!! A stupid question: are the pictures true? They are incredible.

Byrden

The photos are real, but you need to be aware that the wrecked tanks were blown up in huge explosions that showered them with dirt. And they had been out in the weather for at least 6 weeks when the photos were taken.
One photo shows the inside bottom plate of a Tiger hull;



Iknow for a fact that it was painted blue-grey, but here it's all brown.

There is one tank that seems to show original paint at one corner;



and it appears to be low-contrast camouflage, probably the same Tropical scheme that was discovered on the Bovington Museum Tiger.

Other photos of the same Tiger, e.g. tiger1.info/photo/000433 show the inside of the digits are lighter than the rest.

This model Tiger, hyperscale.com/features/2002/tigerigc_1.htm is pretty good with the colours but Ithink he has them the wrong way around. Ithink the brown was the factory base, inside the digits, and the green was the overpaint.

David

rivetcounter

Also to add to Herr Byrden , Tigers painted in 1943 differed from Tigers painted in 1944, there are also pictures of knocked out Tiger with camouflage added, these Tigers are missing tools, cables and anything else attached to the tank what you see is the base colour were the crew has simply painted over whatever was in the way, periscopes would have been removed or covered

1sgt

One way would be to look for pics of tanks undergoing field maintenace ( I know theres a bunch of them out there, I have seen many, but honestly don't recall the paint) Anyway, with the running gear removed, it'll be possible to see behind the Drivers and roadwheels to see waht color it might be. Will be hard with BnW pics, but you should see a cloror or shade change. Also saw a vid on you tube with the germans spraying all over the tank with a air gun like Rivetcounter said, tools and all.

jim