Panzer hatch inside color

Hello everybody,

Something’s bugging me…

I always assumed most tanks’s interiors were white.

Going through old scale model magazines, I noticed some builders painted the inside of the hatches on german tanks - Panzer IV specifically - in red primer. Would the inside of the hatches be painted in a different coulor? I may also have seen the inside commander’s cupola panel of a Panzer IV H depicted in dunkelgelb…

I could google pictures of course but I need to see colors and I take pictures of restored vehicles with a grain of salt… Would anybody know which choice would be correct? Different options for different times?

All hatches should be the same as the exteriour camo, so that would either be Pz Grey or Dark Yellow.

Thanks Bish! [t$t]

How about early on in the war 39-40, before they realized it could be a problem ? Or was it always like you say.

As far as i am a aware, it was always like that. The regulations were so well adhered to that early Sd.Kfz 251’s had the drivers compartment, technically under cover, painted the tank interiour colour. Where as the crew compatment, only really visible from a higher position, or the air, was the same as the exteriour.

On closed top German WWII AFVs, the prime color is on off white ivory shade called “Elfenbein”, RAL 1001, not white. But there are more colors in there as well. Some components are in left in primer red, some in black, some in an olive green. But on hatches, as Bish said, the inner face should match the exterior manufactured color. This gets interesting on vehicles repainted in the field. The dark gray inner faces can be seen on vehicles repainted into desert colors. Or those whitewashed in the winter will usually keep the gray or dark yellow on the inner hatch face as well.

Here are some original WWII color photos taken shortly after the end of the Polish campaign. You have a good view of hatch interiors in a shot or two…

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/3/t/155187.aspx

matching the exterior color…

Stik posted just about the same info a few seconds prior to mine so my post was removed so as not to be redundant.

I read that German crews complined about the red primer color making thins a bit dark during operation.