I am building a Sd.kfz 22 and depicting it as a 5th Panzer Reconnaissance Vehicle in France. I know the uniform will be black with pink piping. What kind of Collar board would they wear? I think the shoulder board would be silverish grey with pink piping.
Thanks for the help!
Anthony
If you mean the collar patch they would be normal Panzer with the death’s head. The shoulder boards would be the silver gray with rose pipinging for officers, blck with rose piping for EM/NCO.
Assault gun and SP anti-tank gun crews, along with SP Arty got feldgrau uniforms with the “Panzer” cut… Only the tank crews wore black… Also, the Recon elements were generally cavalry and would have yellow Waffenfarb rather than pink, although there was a mix of pipings by late-war due to supply issues…
The collar-tabs would be typical SS runes on the right collar-point, rank on the left.
Thanks for all the help guys! That answered my question!
Oh heck… I was talking about the 5th SS Panzer Division “Wiking”… Hope you were, too…
5th Panzer (Heer) would would use the same pipings, but with the Heer collar tabs and Waffenfarben on the cavalry/ panzergrenadier…
The Heer uniforms would be the same styles though… Black for Panzer crews, Feldgrau for the rest…
lol…I knew what you meant…I built a 5th Panzer recon not SS though from 1940. So I guess I need to go with the yellow piping then. And the Uniform I painted a greyish black which will certainly get a little darker once i use a wash on it. Maybe I should redo the guy…lol
Yeah, you might, lol… Also, the collars, in 1940, circa Battle of France? Probably would still be the “Bottle Green” color…
OK I think I got it square now! Grey uniform…Yellow piping…Bottle Green Collars. Shoulder Boards Greyish Silver. The figure is wearing an over seas looking cap not that floppy panzer cap worn by panzer crews in 1940. It’s the figure Tamiya supplied with the SD 222. I have a few books on the invasion of France and have pics of this uniform and cap but all B&W 
Thanks again for your help!
Anthony
Hi Anthony,
I hope you haven’t proceeded too far with your figure. In reality, the uniform of the armored reconnaissance in 1940 would have been the standard black wool Panzer uniform. The waffenfarbe for the piping in the 5th Panzer Division was pink. The shoulder boards were black but an NCO would wear braid around the edge of each strap to denote hia rank. An ordinary crewman only had the pink piping. The headgear could have been the black Panzer beret or field gray or black sidecap. In the interests of simplicity, I’ve avoided the official terms for these items.
HTH,
Ron Volstad
+1 with Ron, if they were actual motorized recce the waffen farb would actually be a Copper-brown in the 1939-1943 era. But belonging to the 5th Panzer division they would wear normal tanker uniforms with that branch waffen farbe, rose.
No he is not that far along. It seems then all I have to fix is the boards. I figured that was right, all the photos I have of 1940 show black uniforms even in armored cars. I have noticed quite a few lighter uniforms in 1939 though.
You guys are the best! Thank you to each and everyone of you for the helping hand! Pics are soon to follow 
Anthony
Waffenfarben, or branch color, weren’t universal… Tank crews wore the pink piping, others wore their particular branch’s color and all those colors would be present in the division… For instance, the Artillery Battalion’s gun crews would wear the red piping of the Field Artilley, not the pink piping of tank crews, and the Panzergrenadiers of the division would be wearing Reed Green, Engineers, Black, MPs- Orange, and so on and so forth… I didn’t want to get down to the slice elements, just provide an overall picture, but this’s about the size of it for 5.Panzer… Tank crews were quite possesive of their pink Waffenfarbe and even after they were ordered to go to the Lemon Yellow piping in 1944, most continued with the pink in outright defiance (REALLY rare in the Wehrmacht) of the regualtions…
The copper-brown Waffenfarben spoken of would be for Motorized recon elements, not the mechanized elements of the Division, from the 5. Panzer Order of Battle.
The 8th Reconnaissance Battalion, the organic Recon Element to the 5th Panzer, was made up of two Armored Car Platoons, (Copper-Brown in Wheeled Vehicles), a motorcycle Company (Grass Green) Heavy Cavalry Company (mechanized-GoldenYellow), one Signals (Funker) Platoon (Lemon Yellow), Light Reconnaissance Supply Column (Motorized-Light Blue), and Map & Arty Survey (White)…
No matter what source(s) you may use though, there are always exceptions to the rules… Everytime you take a “This is the bottom line about authenticity” stance, someone will be able to produce a period photo showing otherwise… For instance, it’s a fact that the 2nd Armored Division wasn’t at Medina Ridge during the Battle of 73 Easting during Operation Desert Storm… In fact, they never even deployed to S.A., with the exception of the 2 AD (Fwd), the “Tiger Brigade”… However, I have a photo of what appears tto be a 2 AD Soldier in that very battle, the 2nd AD patch quite visible… The explaination? Easy… One, It was me, and B, I was wearing a BDU jacket that I never got around to changing the patch on…
[t$t]
However, in this case, my statements stand as a general overview…
lol…ok…ok…So I am going to go with a black uniform and yellow piping! You guys are the best!
Thanks a whole bunch!
Ok here is a finished pic.
The 24th Panzer Division was originally a cavalry division and as such wore lemon-yellow piping instead of pink because of that legacy…just to confuse matters…
Sorry about that first pic post.