What colour were Luftwaffe vehicle cab interiors in 1940 ?

[Merlin]

Hi,

What colour were Luftwaffe vehicle cab interiors in 1940 ?

RAL number or colour name if possible, any rare colour pics...pigs might fly...wreckage being restored... restorers... museums...paint for modellers or restorers, as if such might even have been thought of ...  whatever !

 

Also pump compartment interiors.

 

Cheers

 

Merlin

 

[Kingsman]

IIRC Luftwaffe miltary-spec vehicles followed Heer painting practice: i.e. Dunkelgrau until mid-1943 and Dunkelgelb thereafter.  In fact I believe that pretty much every vehicle of any type for any purpose built after mid-1943 was finished in Dunkelgelb.  

 

Cab interiors on trucks, kubels etc would be the exterior colour.  Interiors of signals van bodies etc were almost certainly the same Elfenbein off-white colour used for AFV interiors.  I suspect that pump compartments on refuellers would also be exterior colour although the pump machinery might be other colours.  I can't see any reason for it to be a different colour: all the controls, dials etc would be right inside the open doors.  That being said, this picture suggests that the insides of the doors on the trailer are Elfenbein or similar.  It could just be the light but it is in shadow.

 

AFVs would also follow Heer practice:  exterior colour inside visible areas of open-top vehicles and Elfenbein elsewhere.

[thorfinn]

11 minutes ago, Das Abteilung said:

I suspect that pump compartments on refuellers would also be exterior colour although the pump machinery might be other colours.  I can't see any reason for it to be a different colour: all the controls, dials etc would be right inside the open doors.

Can't say as to the Luftwaffe in particular, but pump comparents are almost universally in light colors for the same reason that gear wells on modern military aircraft are: much easier (and very important) to see if there are any tell-tale leaks, loose fittings or damage. Whenever flammables are involved, you want to stay ahead of such things before the consequences become dire.

[JackG]

The question was briefly visited in 2012:

 

Another forum does mention an Anthracite grey was standard paint colour for Luftwaffe ground equipment, but vehicles specifically were finished in this colour only from 1936-1938:

https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=206337

 

I would agree with the posting from @Das Abteilung   -  German manufacturing was done for the Wehrmacht, which encompasses all three forces (army, air force, and navy).   There might be some leeway for civilian or foreign vehicles appropriated for Luftwaffe use to be repainted in Anthracite, but then we are trying to guess a grey colour from b/w photos...

 

 

regards,

Jack

[Kingsman]

There has in the past been a misconception that Luftwaffe vehicles were painted in Luftwaffe colours, for which there is no real evidence.  The same misconception is often seen with RAF vehicles painted Dark Earth and Dark Green.  As noted above, all 3 services came under OKW.

 

In the WW2 era, RAL7021 was called Schwarzgrau.  Dunkelgrau is the modern name for the same colour, which only adds to confusion.  Some will tell you that the colour itself has changed but I do not believe that to be the case.  It is the very antithesis of colour codification to change the colour against a code once codified.  New/revised colour = new code.  I imagine that RLM66 Schwarzgrau was pretty much the same colour: certainly indistinguishable in monochrome photos and probably in the blue/green shifted colour film of the era.

 

As with UK and US production, general service vehicles were procured centrally and would therefore all be a consistent colour.  While the Luftwaffe may have purchased airfield vehicles separately I imagine the central colour direction still applied.  As I said, pretty much every vehicle and other metal item for miltary use (helmets, ammo boxes, fuel cans, gas mask cans etc) were ordered to be Dunkelgelb.  There was no civilian vehicle production by then.  Impressed civilian or captured vehicles could potentially be in original colours, especially in Germany itself.

[Merlin]

Hi,

So cab interiors as external.

Pump Compartments Elfenbein. as per AFV. It does make sense, and that photo does seem to suggest so. RAF pump compartments were white, visibility in dull conditions and ability as you say to spot problems.

I see Colourcoats has a tank interior colour of an off white, so presumably that.

 

I do have a tin of  Wehrmacht Interior Blue-Grey ARG13 thinking the cabs were same as the wehrmacht. Where would that have been used then ?

 

Luftwaffe equipment colour, I carried out extensive research on this and found it was not the claimed colours but was the same colour as the Luftshutz helmets, and the flak guns. I then found an unused fresh out of the box unissued gunsight and it also was the same colour as the Luftschutz helmets, neither being the usual colours quoted for the Luftwaffe. One might say okay flak had its own greyish colour, but I found that other vehicles and remnants also had that colour, so I established my own mix. No manufacturer of model paints has ever created Luftwaffe early war blue-grey as they just dont go into research in the way I had to.

 

Merlin

[JackG]

  Wehrmacht Interior Blue-Grey seems to have been in the Colourcoats range before  @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies took over the reins.   Interesting that of the twelve products available under Wehrmacht, this is the only one without a RAL number.  

 

Some searching later,  the above hobby paint was an intended replacement for Humbrol 115,

 https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/missinglynx/viewtopic.php?p=893865#p893865

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/missinglynx/viewtopic.php?p=877783#p877783

 

This site indicates Humbrol 115  is a suggested equivalent to 7033 Grüngrau, the colour used on transmissions?

http://www.miniatures.de/colour-ral-farben.html

 

regards,

Jack

[Merlin]

Hi Jack,

so its for tanks interiors then, thanks.

Merlin