German camo - late WW2 - softskins?

[adt70hk]

Hi all

Very quick question.

Having done some digging on this topic I've found a couple of things online that suggest the policy from sometime in 1943 onwards for softskins - in this case trucks - was that they should have received some sort of camo e.g. the tri-colour one - at least in theory. I believe vehicles entering service before this date would have been grey and should have been given some treatment in the field - again, at least in theory. I've certainly seen plenty of mode;s and reenactment vehicles done in this way.

I ask because I'm going to build some for the battles Junior and I do and don't want to do tri-colour camo on them if it's completely out of the question.

Thanks as always,

Andrew

[Guest]

The order to paint vehicles in dark yellow plus camouflage was from February 1943. In the time immediately after, vehicles could still be dark grey, of course, and photos exist of ones with improvised camouflage of dark yellow over the grey — presumably to make scarce supplies of the new colour go further by not painting the whole vehicles, but making something close to the new camo by using the old one as a base. Later on, though, I would expect vehicles to be painted dark yellow overall, with or without a green and/or brown camouflage pattern over it. Certainly everything newly delivered from the factory would have been dark yellow without a trace of dark grey.

So I guess it depends on the time frame for the vehicle’s you’re modelling: early 1943, dark grey is a realistic colour; late 1943 and beyond, I kind of doubt it.

[Mini Me]

It is not completely out of the question to see late war soft skins with cammo. however it was almost always field applied. reason being that as the war drug on more and more trucks were acquired from occupied countries or flat out captured. I have spent many years researching these vehicles and have yet to see photos of them leaving the various factories in any sort of cammo. Up to 1943 they were painted Panzer grey. after that they were supposed to be painted in Dunkelgeld. Most photos bear that out to some degree but there are always exceptions. Hope this helps. Rick H.

[Steve Jones]

This link may be of some use Andrew

MAFVA

[adt70hk]

Thanks guys, much appreciated as always for the advice.

The battles we have are NWE 44-45 Brits v Germans, nominally Normandy but we do it for fun so sent aren't recreating anything specific.

So dunkelgelb with a camo on top and most likely not a top notch spray job given the field application will not look out of place.

Thanks again.

Andrew

[Guest]

For Normandy, the paint job would probably be quite decent, given that the units the Allies were fighting there, had spent a long time doing no fighting at all, and so would have had plenty of time to apply camouflage to their vehicles. After the fighting in Normandy, standards were probably much lower in many units.

[adt70hk]

For Normandy, the paint job would probably be quite decent, given that the units the Allies were fighting there, had spent a long time doing no fighting at all, and so would have had plenty of time to apply camouflage to their vehicles. After the fighting in Normandy, standards were probably much lower in many units.

True. Hadn't thought of that. It's the PSC box set I've got. So there's three kits, which gives me plenty of scope to experiment.

ATB

Andrew

[Guest]

This is for wargames, right? Then do two much the same and the third different — plain dark yellow, no camouflage, for example. Then see which one draws more fire from the opponent

[adt70hk]

This is for wargames, right? Then do two much the same and the third different — plain dark yellow, no camouflage, for example. Then see which one draws more fire from the opponent

I could just go all out and do one bright florescent pink and see what happens....

[Guest]

I have an army of pink Space Marines, with one black Rhino APC. Back when I used to play this game regularly, people tended to shoot more at the black Rhino than the pink one I also had.

[Tim Marlow]

Yes, but was that because you subconsciously put the black one in the more dangerous positions?