Russian T-35 Pioneer Tools

[Airborne SF]

As I understand it on German WWII tanks the pioneer tools were attached before the tank was painted, so they were not bare wood.  They came out painted in the same camo as the tank itself.

 

I am presently doing final point on the Hobby Boss T-35 Russian Heavy.  Mine is one of the earlier versions and I am doing it as painted pre war, in other words the stripes are still on the turrets.  Did the Russians follow the same paint practises as the Germans or would their tools have had wood grain handles.  Thanks in advance for responses.

[JackG]

If you mean painting the vehicle on the battlefield, then yes, it's possible the crew would leave tools attached while they camouflaged it with new paint.  At the factory though I doubt it.  Wouldn't the vehicle benefit from having an overall paint job for the sake of staving off rust?

 

For a prewar tank, I think the crew would have plenty of time to do things more properly and in an orderly fashion.

 

Here's a well known wartime photo of a Panzer III emerging from water, and note the tool handles are not painted grey like the vehicle.  Even the rear mounts for the antenna are natural wood:

 

 

regards,

Jack

[Karlj72]

8 hours ago, Airborne SF said:

As I understand it on German WWII tanks the pioneer tools were attached before the tank was painted, so they were not bare wood.  They came out painted in the same camo as the tank itself.

 

 

Who told you that?

Edited February 3, 2019 by Karlj72

[Karlj72]

Might of been painted over if they were getting a quick White wash for the winter camouflage.

[Kingsman]

It seems highly unlikely that tools were attached before vehicle painting.  Why on earth would you?  In fact it is possible, even probable, that tools and other ancillaries were added by the receiving tank/equipment/ vehicle depot as in most cases they were common general-service items purchased independently.  I believe this was US and UK practice, and is still UK practice.  The vehicle manufacturer would have provided any special-to-type tools and accessories, but these may not have been fitted to individual vehicles and may have been supplied in bulk separately.

[Retired Bob]

On 03/02/2019 at 21:29, Das Abteilung said:

It seems highly unlikely that tools were attached before vehicle painting.  Why on earth would you? 

I saw a weathering tutorial on youtube and the guy made this same statement, that German AFV's had all their tools and tow cables attached prior to initial camouflage painting.  Does not make sense to me either.

 

Bob

[Kingsman]

Ah, now that's a different issue.  German camouflage was applied in the field by the crews after the switch to Dunkelgelb base colour.  Presumably sometimes in a hurry and often with whatever means of application was available.  So it would not surprise me to fing tools etc slopped with the disruptive colours.  I guess the same might hold true for DAK vehicles repainted after arrival.  However, I imagine that the ever-organised and tidy Teutons would have made it official policy to remove such items first. Late in the war it seems that factory camouflage might have been applied.

 

The original post suggested that such items were attached before factory painting, to which the answer must surely be "no".