The paint scheme for Hurricane in the instructions call for OD / Red Brown AND the big “H” on the side of the turrent.
The 2 reference pics I’ve seen indicate;
Impossible to tell what colour of course but that doesn’t look deep enough to be black.
Since I doubt the primary invasion logistics included landing and supplying paint (you never know though) so the camo would likely be either some German stores they came across or some farmer’s fence paint. Either way I would trust Tamiya’s researchers on this one and go with red brown.
Like the stars I would want to get rid of that big target H as soon as possible!
Hey mate, Tanks Encyclopaedia seem to endorse a colour scheme more aligned to your thinking. It retains a camo pattern but more subdued colours
HMMM it could be green on green but still they would likely have had to source the paint locally. Wish colour film had become normal about 20 years earlier!
The Tank Encyclopedia render is way off with the H and 2 though since the landing picture shows it as solid white and it is very gone by the time the camo went on.
I think you’re right mate… I wonder if Tamiya drew their inspiration from Tanks-Encycopaedia or vice versa. The photo you posted also excludes the pistol port that the Number 2 allegedly wraps around
According to Zaloga books on the subject, the US 2nd and 3rd Armored Divisions were camouflaged en masse with black bands over the original OD paint shortly before Operation Cobra began in late July.
OK that I can buy. What I read made it seem that it was just the one tank that was camoed a short time after landing but if it was later and all of them in a couple of divisions the logistics make much more sense.
Still doesn’t “look” black in the pictures but B&W doesn’t help.
In the 80’s research work was leaning towards Field Drab or Earth Brown bands, but later research turned up the records regarding Black. US Army Engineer Camouflage Battalions had something like twelve standard colors and guideline charts to use in WWII for painting of vehicles. The black color was most common in North West Europe, but it was easily toned down by dust, mud and the usual weathering. Even in the best photos is can be hard to spot
That’s the ticket! As long as it isn’t a later colorized one where the person doing it decides what it should be.
THIS makes sense to me…
No, it’s an actual original color photo from Life magazine. I stumbled across it several years back when they first started to digitalize their archives. I can’t stand those computer colorized black & white photos. Some are better than others, but some are just horrendously done…The Imperial War Museum has a similar archive, although many of theirs are from exercises, rather than combat zones.
