WWI German camouflage colors

After speaking with a friend who is an art historian for the museum at Ft. Meade, I have a pretty reasonable answer to the World War One Color question that is so prevelant on the internet.

All I ever see is threads full of people arguing over what is correct. Here is what she said, and all you need to know:

"There were no two tanks during WWI that were the same color or camoflage scheme. Even on the assembly line the color from one tank to the next in line was different. The paint they used in the era was of VERY poor quality, and was constantly cut with different thinners, which changed the shade, and sometimes the color itself. If you find something that looks reasonably accurate, you pretty much have an historically accurate tank."

She said that the best place to start (for allied vehicles, which is what I am working on) is Olive drab mixed with buff or sand. Any result will be correct.

I agree 100%

I'm not good with any of it.  I have to constantly ask a buddy of mine for colors, since he knows ALMOST everything about German and Russian camo, having read almost every book written on them (in English).  And he has a fair few foreign language books, too.  But he also pointed out to me that unless there is a 21st A7V hidden in an underground bunker, that was perfectly temperature and moisture controlled, there is almost NO WAY to get any accurate color info, since there are no color pictures (if there are, developing and fading would negate any real use), and none of the tanks left (Mephisto and some parts from another), would still have usable color references on them.  So, it all becomes guesswork.  I just want to guess CLOSE to what might have been original.

No sweat, Im glad it will be of use to you.  I find German camo to be the most diffcult for me, plus being somewhat color blind the chart helps me out a lot.

That wasn't sarcasm, I really meant Thank You!  It saves me lots of time, so I won't have to Google everything.  And if I should have a correct name, it helps there, too!  Really, I DO appreciate it!

was just trying to help

This is AWESOME!!!  I can find out I'm looking for incorrect color names MUCH faster!  Thank You SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!

Try this downloadable paint conversion table.  It is a valuable tool adn you can type in the color you are looking for and it will list the maufacturer number and name.  You can select all manufacturers or just the one you want.

 

http://www.paint4models.com/paintchart/paintconversionchart.html#

I was at Hobby Town yesterday, and I found some Polly Scale acrylics that had close matches for colors (one of them being Central Pacific Yellow).  Vallejo might have been made to work, but I can't get those locally, and I like to see the color for myself. 

You might look into Tamiya or Vallejo for acrylics. I use Testors Model Master enamels myself as my preferred paint.

My knowledge on WW1 armor is very light on the ground so can't help you much beyond that. Sounds like you've got a great project in the works, look forward to seeing what you do with it.

Do you have any paint company names for me?  I will NOT use Humbrol.  I don't care what others say, they don't work.  I have had a couple dozen different tins, bought at different times and different places, from different states.  They NEVER mixed, not matter how much shaking and stirring I have done.  I can use enamels, but prefer acrylics.  Either or.

Also, one of the colors mentioned is a LIGHT green, lighter than feldgrau and the khaki green.  I haven't read ALL of Hundleby yet, so maybe I can do a later version without the light green, but I think the light green will help, because a few were feldgrau overall.  I plan on doing one of each, in 1/72 scale.  There were only 20, plus the wooden mock-up body for 501.  I'm also going to do one in 1/35, since I already have the kit.  I bought it when I thought Emhar wasn't going to re-issue the kit again.  At $20 or more per kit in 1/72, with shipping, I wasn't going try it.  Now that Squadron has them again, I already bought 10.  I'm going to use the one I messed up earlier for the wooden one, and take the back off and use the front from another to make a CORRECT 501 Gretchen, which was the only female produced.  It supposedly had flame throwers in the front instead of machine guns at one point.  Nice little change of pace.

I feel your pain. The German pre-1937 scheme is said to be a close match/return to what was used in WW1 as a scheme. It was a three tone pattern though, not 4 tone as you seem to be looking for although the very first tanks were painted literally with whatever was available and some pretty spectacular schemes resulted. Panzerwaffe Volume One refers to the WW1 colors as green, red-brown, and clay yellow. It's put out by Ian Allan Publishing and is a great resource (along with Volume 2) on the early development of the German Panzerwaffe. Highly recommend it if that's an area of interest for you.  

Here's a color plate to give you an idea...I'd go with anything close to a khaki-type green and perhaps something like middle stone/dark yellow for the yellow and you'd be in the ballpark. This is posted for discussion purposes only.