Couldn’t decide if this post goes in the armor section or the finishes section.
Working on an Academy Tiger 1 kit that has a lot of interior detail provided with the kit. I want to do the kit with open hatches. Are the inside of the hatches the same exterior finish color on German armor, or are they the interior finish color? I have seen the inside of the hatches the exterior finish on US armor, but this is my first German build with open hatches, and the instructions do not indicate either way.
The inside of the hatches is the color of the EXTERIOR base color - i.e if the tank was finished in dark gray, the inside of the hatches would be dark gray. If it was dark yellow, the inside of the hatches would be dark yellow.
BRONTO’s advice is correct. Although a stunning number of modelers make the mistake that Phil is suggesting. You can count on one hand, the number of pre-war photos of vehicles where the interior hatch surface wasn’t painted the same as the exterior camo color. Think about it – you camo your vehicle completely but when you want to ride without being buttoned up, you show 3-4 white/ivory/silver hatches to enemy observers?
99.9999% of the time: go with the exterior color. That time you want to veer, you better post an accompanying picture. And don’t look at other models – those builders have made a mistake.
Yes, both have been seen, but probably by the time of the Tiger they were mostly the exterior color so they wouldn’t provide a useful aiming point for gunners
Thanks everyone for your help. I’ll stick to exterior finish like I do on the US vehicles. I’m detailing all the interior, but I know most of it will be invisible when I get the deck and turret put on. Oh well, I’ll know it’s there. Maybe the “open hatch” category at a contest includes deck and turret off.