As I was awaiting the coming East Coast snow storm Armageddon (abandon your car now), I preoccupied myself before the end of civilization by looking at some Panther color references and noted that most of the pictures of Panther D issued to units that fought at Kursk appeared to be painted only in the factory-applied dunkelgelb and even sported this monochromatic scheme into battle. Can anyone enlighten me on this? It certainly would simplify painting but I try to be as accurate as possible. Of course, I expect mostly you northern boys to answer this question as all us southern boys will be panicking and running around in circles in that white stuff.
I don’t have any of my referance books at hand so i can’t look for myself at the moment. But the Panthers at Kursk were rushed into action, litteraly straight off the trains and into battle. It is very possible that the crews did not have time to paint them.
Towards the end of the war it is also common to see German armour in just the dark yellow.
And i am also in the South East. But thats of England, so don’t count.
What Bish said. I don’t think that, at Kursk, even the most effective camo known to man would have stopped Ivan seeing you coming, and the troops had better things to do with their time.
And if Suffolk is in the South-East of England, then Maryland is in the South-East of the United States! [:D]
Cheers,
Chris (not sure if Weymouth is South-West England, or just South… )
Well, its deffinatly in the East, and i class myself as a Southener lol. If i had said East Anglia i might have lost him [:D]
Looking at some photos in the book “Operation “Citadel”” by J. Restayn and N. Moller, it looks like those from Panzer-Abteilung 51 were painted in a three colored scheme. I would not presume they all were, but it seems that a number were camoflaged. Go with what you wish.
Doug
In JJ Fedorwich’s two volume set on the battle, which many consider to be the definitive work to date, there are several color plates of Panther D’s in dunklgelb with olive-green overspray…in fact, most of the German vehicles in the battle seem to be in those two colors almost exclusively…Red-brown, in theory, was supposed to be used in the fall/winter months while olive-green in the spring/summer…the “rushing” of the Panthers into battle has become more myth than fact…the Panther was dogged by mechanical problems during its entire lifetime, and Hitler delayed the battle for several months until many new vehicle types could be delivered (including the Ferdinand)…however, the Panther was lt down as much by its use and commanders than by itself…the brigade commander seemed incompetent and at one point ran his entire unit into a known soviet miinefield…