I’m not really an armor builder, but I want to change that. I bought a Tamiya 1/35 German HANOMAG Sdkfz 251/1 for my stash in March, and a Tamiya 1/35 M4A3E8 Sherman last week. I’m wanting to find some good reference books for paint/camo schemes for these, but I don’t want to drop a ton of money on anything super specific in case I don’t venture into armor much in the future. Are there any decent books like the ones out there for WWII aircraft with all (or at least most) of the German armor with multiple camouflage schemes for each, and the same for US armor? Thanks in advance for the help.
I do most of my references online. Google.
Other books to find refernces:
Barnes & Nobles
Your local library
Further, when online I find walk arounds particularly useful for armor.
One very good reference source for all things military is primeportal.net, lots of photo walk arounds.
German armor camo schemes are something of a grab bag. The multi color schemes, with few exceptions, were usually applied by crews in the field and not by factories to any one particular pattern. The vehicles came in a base color, units were given the secondary color paints to use, and the schemes were applied and modified to match local conditions.
US vehicles came out of the factory in Olive Drab, and if they received a painted camo scheme, it was applied by engineer camouflage units at forward depots using specific colors and somewhat consistent patterns.
All that aside, both Squadron and Osprey publishing have some good affordably priced books on painting US and German WWII vehicles.
If all you need is a color guide, this 190 page book with 390 color illustrations is a good bet for only $12.87 (used);
https://www.amazon.com/Tanks-World-War-Jean-Restayn/dp/2908182386
While it doesn’t offer multiple views of the same vehicle, the color drawings are well done and a good visual aid for painting.
I have found a lot of links to reference photos on http://cybermodeler.com/. They also have kit reviews
Let’s see if this link will work…
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/310185493061816190/
then copy and paste this one
Each picture will take you to more pictures and more info sites.
#### !https://i.imgur.com/OTz8Cg2.gif
I like this site for lots of ideas.
http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/nazi_germany/SdKfz-251_Hanomag.php
As many of the other have said, if its just for colour schemes, you are better off looking on line. That 251 kit is very old and has plenty of accuracies issues and i would not go spending lots of refernace material just for that.
I would treat that site with some caution though Eric. While the pics are good for ideas, there are several of the captions which are totally inaccurate.
Thanks for all the information, y’all. It’s greatly appreciated.
Probably one of the cheapest references is Squadrons In Action series.
I didn’t read all of the replys, but noticed some good answers. Chris ‘Toadman’ Hughs has an excellent site filled with photos. He also did one of Squadrons best walk-arounds on the M41 ‘Bulldog’.
Ron