Panzers, 1939

Fascinating to contrast the track color to that of the exhaust muffler.

Further, the contract between the roadwheel tyres, and the tires on the trucks & PAKs.

Yes, there is some very good coloring to reference here. The wheeled vehicles appear cleaner, more recently painted, and possibly having the brown/gray two tone schemes. But the PAKs and Panzers look like they are just back from the front after a quick wash.

Nice pics Stik. The two tone scheme has cropped up on here as few times. It was actually in use up to and including the Western Campaign in 1940. wbill has done a lot of researche into this. But it is often hard to see on B&W photo's.

Interesting that the crosses still seem to be white.

Exactly Bish. Orders did not mandate an overall Gray scheme until after France had fallen. Yet on the Mk .IVs and Mk.IIs here, there really is no trace of the brown camo color.  I just post these for discussion purposes here. There were taken in 1939 shortly after the Polish campaign, so the white crosses are in order. And I do not doubt the research of wbill and others on this subject.  This is just great stuff to find and discuss here.

I was under the impression that the crosses were painted yellow during the campaign as they are proving to be great aiming points for Polish gunners.

I see where your coming from on the two tone, sorry, I misunderstood your first post, my fault, just got out of bed.

No worries Bish. I will be in the same boat in about 10 hours here. Yes I have seen photos and read of the yellow cross overpainting as well. Who knows if they repainted the crosses white for the parade (I'm sure that you did one or two of those in your career and have experienced the clean up for those), or if that was a unit that did not do the yellow overpaint.

Good pictures! Also note how dark the colors are, not the more "blueish" that seems to be the trend with modelers these days.

real nice pics,thanks for posting

The issue of the yellow vs. white crosses isn't a conflict. Many of the 'yellow' crosses where the white crosses smeared with mud to tone them down vs. actually painted over. Others were repainted, so it's a mixed bag. Not surprising to see white crosses on the 'parade' vehicles. It's also not a contradiction to be unable to make out the two-tone scheme on some vehicles vs. others...once you get a coat of light dust on a vehicle like you see in those Pz IVs and IIs, the two-tone virtually disappears unless the lighting is just right or the angle catches the underlying contrast. The vehicles in the first pic where you can clearly see the two-tone look like they just came out of the shower they're so clean, but even with them you have to look very close to see the dark brown demarcation with the gray.

Yes, for some reason the wheeled vehicles are much cleaner, darker, and the camo can be barely discerned compared to the panzers and cannon.

Hi,

I am looking for color picture examples of the 2 tone wherever I  can find it.

I am not sure that I see anything but shadows of the trees in these pictures?

Thank you for sharing Stickpusher, great reference!

Very Best Regards

Johan

Youre welcome Johan. On the top photo, the vehicle closest to the camera, there does not appear to be any shadows, and I can swear I can see a very faint contrast of a different color on the back plate.

If I may:

1) Color film back then did weird stuff, so keep that in mind when looking at absolute hues. There's been several discussions about this on various forums, all very interesting. It pertains to OD too.

2) I don't see any rust or chipping......  (tongue firmly in cheek here).

You can bet the vehicles were cleaned up and parts repainted for the parade. As RBaer said, don't swear by the color pictures, too many variables to throw off the true shades.

thanks for the upload I always look forward to see what you have dug up from the life photo archives.

Old thread yeah... but I found another beautiful photo from the same source. Look at the trailers... looks like the brown color over the gray.

Those are great looking pictures stick, clear and sharp. Reminds me of some DAK schemes that appear to be single color but had a brown added but hard to see in period B&W pictures.

Das Werk recently released those transports in 1/35.  Excellent clarity in that photo. 

I read an article some months back regarding the tone of Panzer Grey. The writer had found and interviewed a German infantryman that was still living at the time. He asked about Panzer Grey and how it was modeled today and the German said that they never had that blueish tint, but rather Panzer Grey had a light green tint in real life. These pics to my eye, look like what he stated has some merit. I see more green there than I do the blue tint.  To me anyway, for what it's worth.

BK

You're welcome Grey. I think that the photos are just a bit overexposed, so that would explain the red tones.

Ok, Im glad opar chimed in, as I was having a brain fart on remembering if those panzer transports "future relase" or already out.  I want to remember that lo-boy tank trailer is out too--is that correct?

Would be a heck of a diorama to recreate.  And about eight foot of shelf

The Panzer transporters are already available:

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/das-werk-dw35003-faun-l900-incl-sdah-115--1171293

I have one in my stash and am considering adding these to the load:

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/icm-35532-typ-g4-w31-with-open-cover--171748

Painted up like this:

And this one

http://www.lyonairmuseum.org/exhibit/1939-mercedes-benz-model-g4-offener-touring-wagon

snapdragonxxx

The Panzer transporters are already available:

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/das-werk-dw35003-faun-l900-incl-sdah-115--1171293

 

I have one in my stash and am considering adding these to the load:

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/icm-35532-typ-g4-w31-with-open-cover--171748

 

Painted up like this:

And this one

http://www.lyonairmuseum.org/exhibit/1939-mercedes-benz-model-g4-offener-touring-wagon

 

 I recall reading an article 10 to 15 years ago about the Spanish Royal Family having one of these and I believe was given to Franco by Hitler. If I recall correctly, Mercedez offered to do the restoration.