Marder III

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

Doing a Tamiya Marder III and looking at maybe a summer 1942 Eastern front scene. Would the Dunkelgrau RAL 7021 be a correct single tone finish since I already have plenty on hand? Information I have is a little conflicting for that period between a single tone finish, or two tone camouflage.

Thanks.

2

The order rescinding the two-tone dunkelgrau / dunkelbraun paint scheme was issued in June, 1940, so you are well past that, therefore, overall dunkelgrau would be fine. The switch to dunkelgelb base coat didn’t occur until Feb. 18, 1943.

Some vehicles send to southern Russia were finished in two-tone “Tropen scheme” (2/3 RAL 8020, 1/3 RAL 7027) in 1942, so this is possible, depending on your vehicle type, unit and/or location. This would need to be researched further to insure your particular vehicle type was finished in this manner, I can’t say for sure off the top of my head…[^o)]

The two-tone green over grey scheme is not an official paint scheme, but B/W photos seem to indicate this probably occured, possibly with either Luftwaffe or captured Russian paint stocks, this is still being debated … AFAIK, no color photos of this scheme are known to exist.

3

Thanks for the info. To add to the confusion, I also read somewhere that there were some Africa paint schemes applied at the factory but then they were sent to other theaters because of need. Sometimes I think later in the war that you could use any paint scheme and make up a convincing back story.

4

The “Tropen scheme” (tropical) is one of the factory finishes sent to North Africa and some were also diverted to southern Russia.

While there are many examples of some pretty crazy paint schemes, (the “Picasso” Sturmgeschutz comes to mind), it’s best to base your models from photographs of actual vehicles. There is nothing like showing up at a model show and having to defend your choice of paint scheme to those judges who have never seen it and don’t believe it ever existed…[:^)]

This for example, is a non-starter, [8-)]

Sorry, but I just don’t get this whole Girls und Panzers thang…[+o(]