Desert Panzer IIIs

[Smithy1961]

To go with the desert Sherman I intend to build I want to do a Panzer III. My question is this. Were the versions shipped to North Africa pre-painted for that theatre or was it done on arrival? In either case was the base coat  dark grey or red brown? My intention is to do a heavily weathered version using the hairspray method, so need to get it right first time!

[JackG]

German desert paint schemes is one of those perennial topics, as the only information available is through the interpretation of war photos, combined with the known directives that introduced specific paints.  

 

Only the first contingent that began arriving in February 14 1941, known as 5th Light Div., sported the European scheme of overall grey.   There is much theory and ideas on how these vehicles were prepared for Rommel's first offensive in the desert,  and it all involves guesswork from photos.   The only textual evidence is from the diary of a panzer crew member, wherein a March 23rd 1941 entry states they finally painted their tanks with yellow paint.   There is no RAL number or source of said paint, but I tend to lean towards something from German paint manufacturers. 

 

March 17, 1941 - a directive is issued that all equipment issued to North Africa is to be painted in RAL 8000, with one third covered in RAL 7008.   These were ready available paints, as German rail industry was using both.

March  25, 1942 - directive changes to a more appropriate desert colour,  RAL 8020 and one third coverage with RAL 7027.   An additional stipulation was the initial issued paints were to be used up.

 

Somewhere in all the above, people will want to  include the use of Italian paints, as well as captured British stocks.  

 

regards,

Jack

[KRK4m]

Agree with every word written (typed/said) by Jack.

The only addition is a picture of my Braille scale PzKpfw III and PzKpfwIV brush-painted in these two schemes mentioned above.

 

 

Cheers

Michael