If you have ever seen a real German Tank at some museum nicely restored, then something might come into mind: Color. We went to the patton museum and saw the king tiger and frankly, the color was weird. what are you’alls two cents.
What was the lighting? Daylight, fluorescent, metal-halide or tungsten? Each light type will produce a different color light, hence a different color on the vehicle.
Since I’ve never been to a museum, am I correct that they don’t always use accurate paints and camoflauge schemes in restoration. If that’s true, I’m puzzled, but I’ve seen a few pics in my day and they are not all textbook accurate.
I was making the obviously stupid assumption that they were painted correctly, which we all know is rarely the case! [D)]
at he museaum here they have a churchill VII croc painted in canadian colors, canada did not use this tank, but they did use churchill IIIs and IVs( or was it IIs?) no german tanks at this place, but they do have a t-72, havent got a close lok at it yet, so i hope it does not have canadian markings
Always keep in mind that museums have the same trouble with color that modelers have. They are usually dealing with black and white photos etc. Even if the vehicle arrived at the barn with the original paint, it may be faded and what have you. Most museums do their best, but be cautious of just excepting their color scheme. I remember seeing a photo of the Munsterlager Panther from back in the 60s and it wasn’t even close. The new paint it got in the 80s is, I believe, much closer to the one it would’ve worn in the 40s. Munsterlager’s Tiger II looks very much like what I’ve always seen in my minds eye (except for sporting transport tracks), is it accurate? I don’t really know, but it’s cool.[8D]
I believe I read somewhere that the original RAL paint chips were lost and no one really know the exact colors that were used. Old color pics distort the colors and a lot of museums painted the tanks with whatever they had. A good book with lots of color pics (although they even point out the dubious accuracy) is German Tanks of World War II by Michael Green, Thomas Anderson and Frank Schulz. I picked one up at Barnes and Nobles. Another good link is http://www.missing-lynx.com/panzer_facts.htm