What colours are the German tanks?

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

Hi guys, I was wondering what the main colours were for the German tanks. (Panthers and Tigers)

Thanks Anthony.[:)]

2

Well, the base color early on was dark grey. Model Master makes Panzergrau in Acrylic and Enamel. I usually Lighten mine some, as it is vary dark. Later on they went to a yellow base. After that, they added a green and a red-brown camo pattern with either or both colors. Again, Model Master makes these, labled as dunkelgelb, panzergrun (or olivgrun) and rotbraun. There are also examples of gray tanks with brown or yellow overspray and tanks with a darker yellow (sandgelb) paint job. There are tons of variations of colors too, and I have found you may find the same tank in 3 books and each artist who painted it interpreted the BW picture differently, and thus the colors are different. Here is a nice short history of colors:
http://www.missing-lynx.com/panzer_facts.htm

Tamiya makes the colors too- Dark Yellow, Dark Green and Redbrown. I find their redbrown (and model master’s) more brown and a lot less red, so I mix in a little Tamiya Hull Red (or Rust for MM) to give it a more reddish color.

3

Thanks

4

I don’t know about you, Jason, but I find the Tamiya colors a little on the dark side. I’ve added a touch of flat white to the dark yellow, and I think I’m a little closer to the target. I’m going to do the same with the dark green.

5

I use the Tamiya straight out of the bottle for the base colors, but I will spray a little mixed with some white in a patchy way to make the color a little irregular

6

The exact shade will never/always be right. The many methods used to apply the colors,the conditions during which they were applied, and the time it took for orders to reach the units make it impossible to “match” any color. If you’re in the ballpark, go with it.

  • If you see someone at a contest with a color chart,kick them out! That kind of criticism doesn’t belong in a hobby:its supposed to be fun.
7

A few examples (Tigers and Panthers, oh my!!!)



Happy painting! Steve

8

as he says they were never the same some of the camo was put on by the crew while in the field so there is never 1 german tank that looks like another

9
  • If you see someone at a contest with a color chart,kick them out! That kind of criticism doesn’t belong in a hobby:its supposed to be fun.

AMEN!!!

10

for a late war or heavely used german tank let brush marks show a little on the corners and places that are pron to getting hit.