Turret numbering - always as perfect as it seems?

[30+]

I've been thinking alot about the turret numberings, were they really as perfect as they seem in the world of plastic modelling?

I know that the tank crews used stencils to paint the numbering and tactical markings onto the turret and the tank body, but tank crews fight during a war, and do you really always have the time to make every number as perfect as possible, when you know that the enemy could strike at any time or the sky could be filled with enemy figher-bombers?

I've seen plenty of pictures of tanks - German' etc. - where the tactical numbering isn't painted perfectly, but you can still read what it says, and the same should go for the heavy tank batalions, shouldn't it? Especially as they are seeing more combat than the normal tank squadron will?

The reason I'm asking is also that I'm thinking about the sPzAbt 505, "the knight batalion", for my KT and in that case I may paint the gun barrel numbering by hand, instead of buying over-expensive decals, "just to keep things historicly correct". And since this batalion saw action pretty much nonstop it would be realistic to keep the look that the numbering is painted on by hand, wouldn't it?

The same could also go for other tank units as well, or am I wrong? What are your ideas on the matter?

Cheers, Jens

[daisycutter]

i would go out on a limb and say tanks repainted in the field would be done however the situation/supplies allow i cant see them pulling back from battle a getting out the spray gear and stensils to make the tank look pretty

[BigPanzer]

Hi,

very valid point. I would doubt that any tank had numbering as perfect as a decal. I would guess that all numbers and insignias would be applied in the field at the same time as the current local camo pattern so they wouldn't be perfect.

On the large scale stuff probably most of the numbers are done either by hand or using home made stencils and they do look good.

Peter

[nibelungenwerk]

Just one minor point to bear in mind when dealing with tiger main gun barrels

I have read accounts that during fierce combat the main gun barrels got that hot it burnt the paint off, This lead to the gun barrels being factory lacquered not painted. If true it would mean that any combat numbers kill marking etc who quickly discolour.

I don't know how true this is but it has come from a normally accurate book. There is also an account of battle scarred tigers as having "Black Barrels" ( I am going thru my books to find this but I cannot find it)

[30+]

I have a book at home about the Battle for Ostpreussen 1945, and one chapter is about the sPzAbt 505. That chapter shows two wartime pics of two individual tanks, #124 and #222, and both of the gun barrels are painted with Dunkelgelb or Dunkelgelb / Rotbraun, and not with the special darkgrey base coat, used especially for gun barrels. And considering how much combat this batalion experienced during these battles against the Red Army, the darkgrey base coat did its job and protected the Dunkelgelb camo paint.

The book is written by swedish' authors, so I doubt that any of you have the book...just in case you want to compare.

Cheers, Jens

[grim_marmazet]

With the numbers on my Tiger, I cut stencils out of 40mm Tamiya masking tape and then sprayed the white on, followed by slightly smaller ones for the inner black.
Unfortunately the black leaked under the tape, so I had to repaint the white by hand. It turned out quite well. I very lightly sprayed a thin coat of the base yellow over them to 'fade' the numbers a bit.



As to your question, some crews stencilled them, a lot hand painted them. I think the hand painted look makes them look more realistic, plus you can paint any numbers you want.
Stencil them on first then hand paint over the stencilled ones. Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Rik

[littletankman]

That looks good Rik , here is the numbers on my Pantiger conversion . I did make a stencil . I just printed the numbers 222 of on my PC to the required size then cut them out of normal printing paper , but it wasnt perfect as the paint bled under the edge causing the numbers to be out of shape , but after some touching up weathering and fadding they dont look so bad.

[raven]

hi 30+ i hand painted numbers on my KT a couple of weeks ago it took me awhile keep touching up as paint kept running into the zimm anyway didnt turn out to bad heres a pic



chris

[Silverstalker]

I will most likely get shot at dawn for this' but, what do these numbers mean??

[grim_marmazet]

They were ment to be Company No., Platoon No., Tank No.

Later in the war though, this changed after the Allies worked out which tanks were the leaders by the numbers.

Thats my simplistic take on it, i'm sure someone will be able to explain it in more detail.

Cheers,
Rik