i know that there are many many patters of camo on german armor. what i’m looking the most i guess is the time frame of a certain camo. i don’t know the name of the pattern, but its the solid dark yellow, with the green colored spiderweb all over it. did kingtigers with zimmerit have this camo pattern? and if they did, what was the time frame?
KT’s were factory painted in Dk Yellow until late 1944, when they began recieving the 3-tone hard edged hinterhalt, or ambush pattern at the factory. The green on yellow you describe would have been field painted and used only in the earlier periods of the King Tiger’s service, however this was usually in fairly wide bands, not the ‘squiggle’ common on light vehicles. There are quite a few photos of Porsche turreted Tigers with just green or just brown, and some similar pictures of early Henschels. The would be no vehicles produced later than November '44 wearing this pattern, except perhaps a few sPzAbt 501/511 vehicles serving on the Eastern front, I remember a February picture that show a sPzAbt 511 KT in 2-tone camo. Either way, no late models would be painted that way, although early models serving later in the war might.
However, add zimmerit to the equation and you’re almost certainly out of luck. Most (if not all, IIRC) of the Porsche KT’s had zimmerit, but the available pictures show wide bands of color, not the spiderweb pattern you describe. Very few Henschels had Zimmerit, and most of them ended up in the factory ambush pattern. You could possibly get away with a squiggle pattern on a KT, but I don’t think it’s very probable that such a pattern ever existed.
thanks herme, that answers my question exactly. because i have a porsche turret, and i’m applying zimmerit as we speak, so i want to get a good feel of what pattern i am going to paint it. i’m probably going to go with the broad band of brown and green over yellow. the hinderhalt pattern you described. does these ambush patterns contain the dots? and are the dot colors different colors also?
No “Porsche Turreted” Tiger IIs are to be painted in Ambush Scheme. Porsche turreted production ended in June, 1944, Ambush Scheme paint did not start until August 19th, 1944.
so what camo pattern would porsche turreted KT’s with zimmerit have on the eastern front in the beginning of 44’?
Here is a 503rd scheme taken from Tigers in Combat II
here are some western Henschel patterns (Ardennes):
Hungary late '44 early '45?:
Steve
Virtually all the Porsche Turreted Tiger IIs served with units on the Western Front, and nearly all of them were lost there too. The only Porsche Turreted Tiger IIs that I can think of which served on the Eastern Front are two survivors from sPzAbt 503 which were left behind in Normandy at Mailly le Camp. These two vehicles were repaired and sent back to operate with the 503rd in the winter of '44-45 in the Szarkerestes Sector on the Eastern Front. Crocket’s #314 seen above, is one of these two tanks, which BTW, is an excellent example of the paint scheme to be found on vehicles from this unit.
If there are any other examples of Porsche Tiger IIs on the Eastern Front, I am not aware of them, as they don’t show up in the literature that I have, unless I’m totally forgetting something here…[zzz]
And you are quite right. Only 2 units ever used the so-called "PorscheE turreted version of the Tiger II. That was s.Pz.Abt 503 and Pz.Kmp 316 (Fkl).
Pz.Kmp 316 (Fkl) recieved 5 and s.Pz.Abt 503 recieved 24. The rest of the 50 Tiger II’s with “Porsche” turrets were destributed as follows: 15 to Heeres Waffenamt and 6 to Panzer Ersatz Abteilung 500.
2 of the “Porsche” turrets didn’t have zimmerit that was chassis #V1 and V2 which were test vehicles. I’d have to disagree with your statement that only a few of the Tiger II’s with Henschel turrets had zimmerit about 160-170 of them had zimmerit applied before this was discontinued on September 9th 1944.
My strong points are the technical and operational facts so i will make no comment on the proper paint schemes as my knowledge is limited on this area.
great info guys. i didn’t know that only two served on the eastern front. looks like my plan is coming to par. hehe. thanks