German Air Recognition Panel Questions

38 T almost done.  Air recog panel went down beautifully on aluminum foil last night.  Tonight, I thought I'd spray a little dullcote on the transfer to seal it, planned to cut it out tomorrow.

DOH!!!!!!  The Black color ran within 60 seconds of the mist of dullcote.  Don't do that!!!!!

Guess my tank WON'T have an air recognition flag after all.......

Thanks guys.  Looks like the engine deck is the way to go.  That was my first inclination, but then I got thinking about disrupting the engine cooling air flow.  Guess it wasn't a big problem.  I'll just drape it loose and secure it with some fake rope.

By the way, I was mistaken on the Polish Campaign tank in my stash, it's a Tamiya 35T, not a 38T.  Still gonna drape the "panel" aka flag.  Archer referes to it as a panel, and I have seen these called panels before, so that's why I used that terminology.

yup, it's a flag.

Air - recog panels or swastika flags?  Many panzers in the Poland, west Blitz, and early Russian campaigns, and in North Africa as well, sported various white banners or large patches or stripes on (mostly) rear decks for air - recog.  These were typically painted on (though clearly some pics show things like bed-sheets draped across decks...).  In these same campaigns, some also or alternatively were apparently draped with red / black / white swastika flags. These latter were almost always actual flags, and not painted-on "panels".   From this... I am pretty unsure what was intended for a largish swastika-flag decal - it would be unlikely to be useful as a draped flag, wouldn't it? Decals are generally best at emulating painted-on markings...

As an aside: I am currently completing a 38(t) E/F "Barbarossa campaign" tank - following the color plates and some photos of period / campaign tanks seen in a few Concord pubs, I plan on painting on a largish white air-recog band across the rear deck. In addition, I am thinking of printing a moderately-large swastika flag and draping that - maybe over some piled-on stowage that covers much of the painted white banner... The flag would fit what many pics appear to show - a draped flag over part of tank and stowage.

Cheers!

Bob

im not sure what you mean by "panel" but all the pictures i have seen have had the big swastika flag on the engine deck. i have seen a few pictures with them during to polish campaign, but i have more of an interest in later german armor, i know these flags were used alot during the russian campaign though. i have never seen an engine deck panel painted like this so i assume you are talking about the flag?

Usual placements have them on the rear deck (more visible from the air). Usage commonly seen in 1941 for Operation Barbarossa. Don't recall seeing any photos of them in use during the Polish campaign but doesn't mean it didn't happen.

I've seen a lot of 38T's with panels on the engine deck. Not sure whether they were in the Polish campaign, however.