Hi everyone.
I’m going to start work on the DML 6165 Hornisse kit and I’m looking around for paint schemes… I stumbled upon this site with what looks to be some crazy-fruity camo scheme… Is this an accurate camo scheme that would have been used? And how would it have been applied? Is it the red-brown/green camo colours painted over a whitewash? or what?
http://www.jagdtiger.de/GermanTanks/Hornisse-01.htm
Thanks all!
Sadly I’m not convinced by the colours or some of the camo schemes Kubinka have repainted their vehicles in resent years.
All ill say is this; camo that was applied in the field by the crews, gives us modellers a free hand really. I have somewhere a pic of 2 Panthers in a column with completely different schemes. So as long as your happy with what you do, it would be hard for someone to say it was historically wrong.
If I find the pic of the Panthers I’ll post it.
Oh and welcome to the Forum
Ex949, I agree with box1. You can paint it like whats in the pictures. Good luck.
mark956
[#welcome], Ex949!
The paint on most museum pieces is rarely accurate, sad to say.
I really like that Kubinka Hornisse, though! As the others have said, do what ya like. I’m working on the Tiger II as it was at Bovington in the 80’s, so I’d say doing that Hornisse just as it is at Kubinka would be an interesting model.
wacky or not, that is just incredibly pleasing to the eye ! i love the way it looks, and as J-Hulk says, even if it’s not an authentic battle scheme (and who’s to say it isn’t ?), there is the prototype right there if anyone asks ! those germans did a lot of wacky stuff with armor and camo, for sure ! go for it !!!
frosty[:)]
I don’t think any crew that was trying to camo their vehicle in Europe would use a pattern that would be better suited to the jungle. Looks very creative though! I think my aunt had some drapes like that once.
Ron.
Well, maybe I’ll use my imagination and make it work… maybe hornisse deployed to russia, crew added winterwash… then found some field-applied camo paint and tried something different? If I try this, then I’ll have to scruff up the edges of the winterwash to make it more appropriate… Course I’m not sure what I’ll do with the open compartment… maybe I’ll leave it panzer grey.
And as for the jungle look with the sharp corner cresents, I think I saw it on the Marder IIIM review (albeit green on panzer yellow) a few months back in FSM?
Thanks for the encouragement everyone!
OH NOOOOOOOO [:O]
Good lord! That looks like some demented museum curator’s LSD-induced idea of a camo scheme! And I agree with Poniatowski… looks like kitchen curtains (BAD kitchen curtains). While the Germans were quite liberal with camo schemes, this is so ridiculous… well… maybe they hoped the enemy would die laughing at this paint job and save them the ammo. Geez… makes my skin crawl. At least the vehicle itself is intact and offers good reference material; it appears, on the outside at least, to be 90% complete. It should be noted the muzzle brake belongs on a leFH18 105mm howitzer, however.
Then again, link, the German crews did often put their camo on themselves in the field, and often just slopped in on with a brush. I have seen some freaky-weird camo schemes on German vehicles in the pictures. The most well-known one is that Picasso-esque scheme on an assault gun (IIRC).
I don’t think tribal was popular back then.
The three color camouflage sceme used by the German military from mid 1943 to the end of the war was the most varied of all combatants in the war. New vehicles leaving the factory were to be painted overall dark yellow, additional camouflage was to be applied in the field by the crews themselves or in field work stations. The choices of colors, application and patterns was left entirely to field commanders. This obviously lead to a great amount of variation in appearance, even between vehicles of the same unit. Dark yellow, olive green and red-brown camouflage paint was issued in 2 and 20 kg cans as a concentrated paste, much like shoe polish. This concentrate was to be diluted with gasoline and the most common method of application was with a spray gun. In many situations, application with a spray gun was not possible and almost every possible way to apply paint was used; brushes, mops, brooms, rags, sponges, even with their bare hands. The “artist ability” of the individual crews added to the variation. Due to shortages of gasoline, water, kerosene, other solvents, even used motor oil, was used to dilute the paint concentrates. This produced a huge variation in pigment densities and colors, making the amount of variation in colors and patterns virtually limitless. Winter white-wash was applied in an equally haphazard manner, sometimes a complete coating, other times merely stripes, dots or scruffy blotches. Believe it or not, I actually found a wartime picture of a Nashorn with green and brown paste applied over the white wash to breakup the vehicles shape, very similar to the photo from Kubinka. This is on page 64 of Squadron’s Panzer Colors, volume I. I can scan in the image and post it if you want it.
Hi leopold.
I would be most delighted if you could scan it in and post it!
It’d add some variation to the usual winter-wash scheme.
The photo Leopold refers to isn’t a really good one, but it does lend some creedance to the Kubinka example. I think the museum piece is actually painted in a sand color base coat rather than white, but the “pattern” is easily acceptable. Go with what you like.
Accurate or not, it is indeed an interesting camo scheme. If you like it I don’t think anybody can stop you from doing it.
Good luck.
I agree that the white is probably a sand or light yellow. If the camo were not so in your face, it might look more credible. Truth being, it probably existed. I have certainally seen some interesting examples.
“It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it.”-R.E.Lee
Here is the image of a Nashorn with green and brown swatches brushed over white wash:
I don’t know what that Kubinka image is supposed to be! If the base color is intended to be Dunklegelb, it is the lightest shade I’ve ever seen. It sure looks close to white on my screen! In either case, bold, brush painted stripes over dark yellow or white wash is certainly permissable.
I also don’t know why this image didn’t post, the sytax looks good from here.
Here is the URL: http://rongeorge.com/modules/Gallery/armorref/Winter_Nashorn
Here you go … It took me a minute to figure out what was wrong. You used the page url for posting the pic Leopold. What you need to do is right click on the picture itself, select properties and then copy the entire url from there.
I found out at the last model show I went to that wacky wins sometimes[:D] A fella painted a tiger tank to look like a tiger, orange and while, Great looking but might as well have said SHOOT ME. But it looked great and as others have said, there are tons of different camo schemes in pics so you can’t really go wrong
Thanks for the help Robert. This was my first attempt at posting images and I must have missed something in the directions. [D)]
Leopold - that’s part of the learning curve around here … it’s a short curve but has a tricky bend every now and then.
miller - the Tiger you are referring to is our own Renarts beast of prey
and here’s the thread it was in
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8357