RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

DavidByrden wrote:

43rdRecceReg wrote: I have a Tamiya Tiger....The paint schemes for this early Tiger 1 are all based on Summer, in the Russian campaign. Tamiya suggest that the base colour would be Dunkelgelb (dark yellow) in all instances for 1943 models, and also for desert campaigners. This would suggest that 131 should have a base colour of Dunkelgelb

Here are a few helpful facts:

Dunkelgelb was not applied to any Panzers sent to Africa, ever.

Dunkelgelb was not introduced for Tigers until shortly after "131" was built.

When Dunkelgelb was introduced, of all the Tigers built up to that time, most of them were painted in the same two colours as "131". But about 25 of them had been painted "Dunkelgrau". Most of these 25 grey Tigers got whitewashed as soon as they hit the battlefield, and then got painted in different colours in the Spring of '43.

Tigers didn't operate in sandy deserts in Africa, ever.

Tamiya frequently don't know the correct colour for a Tiger. (I can't speak for other tanks)

David

Thanks for the observations, David.
David Willey seems to think that 131 was originally decked out in RAL 8000 (Green/Brown), with an overlay of RAL 7008. To my eye, however, 'Green/brown' is more within the dark sandy yellow spectrum. Maybe dark sandstone.
Actually, I've been to Northern Tunisia, where 131 was captured. There's an awful lot of sand in Tunisia- even in the North East, towards Tunis. Yes, there are lots of olive groves and greener scenery up there; but it's still predominantly sandy in character. While the Sahara proper begins south of Tunisia's El Jem area, the North certainly has much of the same scenery- minus the dunes.
I recall you discussing the 131 paint scheme before, on this website:
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic ... 8&start=15
Bovington had access to a spectrometer to determine 131's original scheme. I only have the NO. 1 eyeball, and even then, the colour can change with a variety of lighting conditions
Given the uncertainty, I may well opt for a scheme from the 1943 Russian campaigns.

Just to add extra detail, for reference purposes, Adam mentioned using AK's 'real' colours for his Tiger 131 project.
Just to get an idea of how one colour can vary, here's AK's take on 'Dark yellow' (Dunkelgelb), beginning with 'Dunkelgelb nach Muster':

Vallejo's version of RAL 8000 (the first dark yellow used on German armour, and the one supposedly on 131, before refurbishment ):