Sdkfz 251 - What colour for the interior?

Excellent!  Thanks Bish.

Hopefully i'll get a coat down this weekend.

In that case I would forget the grey. By 1942, vehicles were arriving in N Africa already painted in desert colours. The order for this was dated in March 1941. Unless you want to portray an old vehicle that may have been sent over in early 41. But front line vehicles like the 251 would probably not last that long.

I would just go desert colour inside and out with red primer underneath.

Thanks Bish.

According to the instructions, African Front as of 1942.

The primer would still have been the standard red. If your doing a vehicle that would have been grey and over painted in camo, then you could have both the grey and red underneath.

What time period and theatre of operations are you putting your 251.

Thanks Bish and Waynec - does that mean any chipping should be dark grey? ie - that was the primer?

Chris.

i agree with bish. additionally, if it went to north africa as panzer gray it is possible, due to lack of paint and time, the interior would stay gray while the exterior was painted sand.

As mentioned, open topped vehicles would be the same on the inside as outside. T26 is right about the drivers compartment of the early versions.

I would treat colours on museum vehicles with some caution.

Clemens - thanks for the pics! Appreciate that.

Roy - excellent information, and makes sense.

I think i'll go with the dunkelgelb interior.

Thanks very much to you both for the quick replies.

Chris.

The Tamiya SdKfz 251 kit represents an earlier C version.  It would have left the factory with dark grey interior paint (some sources say eariler A and B versions had the drivers' area with off white paint).  However, anything visible to the enemey air observation (the fighting compartment of the half-track) would be the same as the exterior color.  As these survived into '43 and after, they would have been repainted dark yellow.  Hope this helps.

It seems like both colors are possible. There are 2 251s at the tank museum in Munster. One is painted white and the other one dunkelgelb:

Cheers, Clemens