Tamiya King Tiger Painting Guide

[Saxondog]

Does anyone have this set of Painting guides from the Tamiya King Tiger Instructions? I need to know what era or Unit the KT on the right hand lower side is painted to represent. Through now fault of my own and by shear luck my Henschel KT looks very much like this picture. Any help is appreciated, Saxondog

[Von kraftwerk]

The scheme I believe is suggested for zimmerit pre sept 44 when camo was applied at unit level before factory schemes,ambush,hardedge etc,Tamiya's idea of ambush looks suspect,and Tamiya research has got better since then,but the scheme looks very sPzAbt 503 sennelager/Hungary late 44,there is some well known footage showing the Abt with turret number 300 in foreground,non zim Tiger II should have factory schemes that were all almost standard,ambush type were all almost the same,dots were then dropped and pattern less elaborate,so called octopus appearing very late,

[tankmad]

Sax it's in English after the Japanese writing it entered the battle of Normandy then went to the eastern front.
Stevie

[Von kraftwerk]

Hi Tankmad that would make it sPzAbt 503 then,I don't know where Tamiya got refs for Henschel Turret KT's in Normandy,lots of pics of 503 at mailly le camp before D-Day,and some after with Porsche turrets,pics of 503 with Henschel turrets,mostly come from about sept 44 at sennelager and oct in Budapest,I never take Tamiya research in camo and markings as fact,a few Henschel types appear in photo's that are supposed to be Normandy with few clear pics of turret numbers or July production without track hooks,and a few abandoned in eastern France late summer,according to some,belonging to SSsPzAbt 101 as replacements

[bubbajoexx]

Does anyone have this set of Painting guides from the Tamiya King Tiger Instructions? I need to know what era or Unit the KT on the right hand lower side is painted to represent. Through now fault of my own and by shear luck my Henschel KT looks very much like this picture. Any help is appreciated, Saxondog

King Tiger Tamiya Paint guide.jpg

Tamiya Henschel King Tiger Camo Pattern 005.JPG

german tanks used base+1 colour or base+2 colour never base+ 3 colour camo from all of my books

[Von kraftwerk]

Hi joe it seems the jury is out, when it comes to German camo practices,with field applied upto sept 44 anything is possible change over to dk yellow feb 43 pz grey with dk yellow green and brown,there is debate about red primer showing as camo colour,if order to stop base coat dk yellow and to apply camo colours on top of primer was taken one way,we would see dk yellow and green,with red primer making the third colour,or same again with chocolate brown and the primer covered,meaning that with the order to stop base coat yellow fall 44 was to save time and paint,order misinterpreted could mean 3 colours mentioned with areas of primer as a 4th colour,this was all during the late 44 factory scheme period,base coat green 6003 may never have happened,as the order seemed to have been to primer in green before assembly,light grey zinc primer seems to show through as stripes on some late Jagdpanthers,a light buff appears to have replaced dk yellow on some late panzers,as well as obsolete RAL colours being used along with Czech and possibly French paint,some pics show field camo applied on zimmerit free panzers,ie on top of existing factory paint job,the rare octopus camo could be a hurried version of ambush,or a factory worker following painting orders incorrectly, Panthers coming from 3 factories had very simular scheme according to factory,ambush style on KT's was almost the same as if a diagram was used,the pattern seemed to change around dec-jan 45, after all my years of study,I've learned to never say never,almost anything is possible,although when trying to model a particular tank or unit,study and in the end its in the eye of the beholder.phew!

[bubbajoexx]

the army had been supllied with 2 colour for field applied camo the med green and red brown in 30 years of reading there is no mention of chocolate brown or light green in a repaint you may get fuged colours but the main 2 colours used from all the books are the same

[Von kraftwerk]

joe,the paint was supplied in a paste,it could be diluted with ideally petrol,or paraffin kerosene,water, the shade would depend on this our hand or spray,look up RAL colours there was more than one red braun,and green,and schokolade braun is mentioned in German accounts,there was more than one dark yellow or gelbocker or wehrmacht oliv,early war pz grau was almost black,Tiger I's in Afrika had at least 3 different base colours,field repaints,I've been studying German panzer camo for 35 years have been involved with genuine original panzer's in private collection here in UK,that sadly most people will never get to see inc initial prod Tiger I,with 2 pistol port turret,sans escape hatch,Jagdpanther rebuilt,Panther D still in progress,loads of Hetzers late StuG 3,Jagdpz IV lang,now in USA,upgunned pz IV ausf E,and others inc heuschrek,bits of Panther KT,etc,there is a lot more to this subject than most people think,and there is a lot of out of date info out there,esp in books,I have attended several treffen,(veteren reunions)as a guest,and my knowledge is respected and expanded by my assosiation with these fine old gents,plus first hand experience,ie wreck and artifact study,and having ridden in many available runners sdkfz 250 -251.jgdpz lang,hetzer, Jagdpanther 18t famo opel blitz and more, phew

[Saxondog]

So, my King Tiger could be from late 1944,and could have been three color camo diluted to different tones creating an impression that four colors were used.

Now to really mix it up the White helmet with the black border on top is Grossdeutschland command tank. What I really need is a picture of Grossdeutschland crewman on a Henschel. I have a photo of Grossdeutschland crew members on a Zimmerite coated Porsche King Tiger, but would really like to have both in a group connected to my favorite band of brothers G/D.Deine Waffe

Saxondog

[Von kraftwerk]

I reckon your camo would be some field applied with brush on top of the typical no zim factory camo,as I keep telling em never say never,there were typical examples of course and changing sets of regs (rules if you like) but always exceptions,mud mixed with oil was and is still used as camo paint by German and other armies,depends if you want to model say a typical or an attempt at an official or factory scheme,or something a little bizarre maybe,old books out of date info and dogma make for some boring German tank models