i just bought a german pak 40 anti- tank gun and i dont know what color i should paint in for an early european theater version. thanks for all your help.
for early european you could go with a basic german grey color, is yours the tamiya pak 40?
The Pak 40 was not used in early europe. It came into service on the Russian front in 1942. It would have been german gray from 1942-1943. In 1943 the German army changed their vehicle color regulations from German gray to Dark yellow. So anything in 1943 would have been dark yellow unless the crew was unable to get paint (not likely)
thank you for your help yes it is the tamiya pak 40 im also wondering what colors to paint the crews uniforms
The basic Tunic would be field gray. I use Tamiya filed gray along with some gray for my figs, but it will look fine straight out of the bottle. I am not to sure about the pants, They would either have been field gray or german gray. For all the other stuff look at this website
http://wilk.wpk.p.lodz.pl/~whatfor/m_niem_wh_unteroff_piech_39.htm
thanks for the uniform info and photo
however, the door knockers where not favourable, and were soon traded in for a better brand… Door Knockers is what they called the Pak 40…
Actually the Pak 40 with its 75mm gun was pretty effective through most of the war (which is why they were mounted on RSO’s, Sdkfz 251/22 halftracks and Sdkfz 234 armored cars as well as in the Marder II’s and III’s). The one referred to as the door knocker was the earlier Pak 35/36 with a 37 mm gun. During the 1941 invasion of Russia more than one of these had a KV-I literally overrun it and do a little “tank dance” on top of the squashed gun. A little bit of “in your face” for the gun crew! Chuck [:-^]
Chuck is correct in that the derogatory “door knocker” was applied to the 37mm Pak 35/36 which even had difficulties w/heavy French armor in 1940. These were the main AT weapon going into Barbarossa and was moderately adequate for the array of lighter Soviet armor and armored cars. However when the T34/76’s and the KV1 and KV2 arrived, the Wehrmacht was sent scrambling.
The appearance of the 5cm Pak 38 helped give the Germans some punch and its lethality was shown against Soviet armor and in N Africa. With the appearance of the 75mm Pak 40, the Germans had a real dominant artillery piece that could kill most anything the United Nations could throw at them for the rest of the war.
And this doesn’t even take into account the use of the multi-role 88mm calibre Flak weapons (18, 36, 37, 41) or the dedicated 88mm AT guns (Pak 43, Pak 43/41). I’ve even built the Azimut Pak 12.8cm K81 super heavy AT gun.
Wrong, the 40 means 1940
You just responded to a thread that’s 14 years old. [I]
The Pak 40 was designed in 1940 but did not enter service until 1942.