I have been modelling for decades, before the computer age in fact, so I have hundreds of books and magazines, covering a multitude of schemes. I thought I knew evrything there was to know!
However I was recently watching a WW2 film on Youtube, taken by the US Army film unit commanded by Gerorge Stevens, who had worked in Hollywood before the war. These films are better than books in that they show German vehicles how they were, rather than how an author would select a subject and use it in isolation, that might be taken as a standard finish.
In a bit of film he shot in the spring of 1945 over the Rhine, there was film of a Geman Army convoy that was probably shot up by P-47D Thunderbolts. Amazingly the convoy included a captured US âM3â type halftrack, that the Germans had painted half in German Dunkelgleb, but the front end had not yet been painted, so it remained in OD. No markings were visible nor the type of winch it had. The rear body armour had M3 squared off armour plates, rather than rounded courners used on International Harvester M5 used by British Army, so I guess it may have been captured in the Battle of the Bulge. What a strange subject but one that wont earn you any awards at your local military modelling show!
As it that isnât enough, according to the Australian Armour & Artillery Musuem, in Cairns, Queensland German Armour liketheir Stug III built in early 1945 up to VE Day may have had a base colour of chocolate brown, to which dunkelgleb and rotbraun was applied as camo. So far I have not found any other references to this. Zimmerit paste had been discontinued in September 1944.
In another film, not by George Stevens, of the German Army surrendering in Italy in 1945, their convoy drives into captivity and includes loads of vehicles in late war camo but also some in Panzer Grey, which I understand was not always applied to captured or â2nd lineâ vehicles, so did exist after Feb 1943.
I hope this helps.