The trouble with Jerry camo!

[steharan]

Hi Guys

Much like a lot of you I play a range of games, one of which is a popular New Zealand based 15mm WW2 game (I'm sure you know the one 8-) ). Now I've always liked the look of German AFV's and thus invested in a small late war armoured force however I've never been able to get the three tone camo right. I've tried stippling, drybrushing, airbrushing (argh!!) and even just plain old painting on with a brush (shock horror!) but never got it to work. Therefore the pics below are of my force in plain old Dunkelgelb however you will note I'm sure, the absence of Schurzen simply because I hate the damn things (as you will have guessed I purchased my toys based on "Oooh, shiny. I must have!). I've stuck a couple of pics below .

Anyways to cut a long story short can anyone point me to a reliable source for the late war presence of Panzer IV's and Stug G's in said paint scheme, sans Schurzen

Gracias amigos

[moiterei_1984]

Tanks were sent to the front till September '44 in plain Dunkelgelb to be painted there by the crews.
The Idea was the crews beeing more able to get the Camo fitting to their area of operations.
Result was a wide range of different camo shemes. From September till November the tanks were commonly sent out to the frontline in just the brown-red anti-rust primimg coat. From November on the so called Hinterhalt camo sheme was painted on already in the factory.

You see you can field 'em just to your taste in plain Dunkelgelb. As to the Schürzen, they were often lost during combat.

[NTM]

Your paint scheme is perfectly suitable for 1943 especially as those StuG are F8 not Ausf G (Sicily for example). In 1944 you really need to be adding some schurzen although StuG were oft seen without and sometimes the Panzer IV lost the side skirts but rarely the turret ones. The StuG would also be the G with the other hull included in the PSC set and the 'saukopf' gun mantlet came in to use too. I think you've done really well with the paintjobs, for some reason I find it more difficult to do a convincing plain dunkelgelb rather than 3 colour camo.

[steharan]

Cheers chaps, thanks for the replies.

The PSC models are great and provide plenty of options.

I did leave the schurzen on the turrets originally however it made the Pz IV's look very top heavy and spoiled the aesthetics (I know, I'm worrying about aesthtics on a 15mm toy tank  ). I'll have a dig around for some more info on the F8's in 1943 as I really want to base on the force on an actual historical formation rather than a collection of toy tanks.

[Vanvlak]

If I remember correctly in some instances the paint was just slapped on, so anything (almost) goes, as long as it's correct for the scale. I believe one scheme used the yellow with white painted on (in snow), and that could be easier - although I like the way these are painted, and would have no problem using them as is. 

[Goosegog]

I did leave the schurzen on the turrets originally however it made the Pz IV's look very top heavy and spoiled the aesthetics (I know, I'm worrying about aesthtics on a 15mm toy tank  ). I'll have a dig around for some more info on the F8's in 1943 as I really want to base on the force on an actual historical formation rather than a collection of toy tanks.

There is plenty of photographic evidence for Pz IV's with just the added armour around the turret and no schuzen on the hull. If you have or can get a copy have a look in 'Panzers In Normandy Then & Now' by Eric Lefrevre;After the Battle publisher. Or Goggle searches should provide such evidence.

As for the Stug III F8: only some 300 or so were built before the switch to the G model. The F8 served with independent units plus the LAH, Totenkopf, Das Reich and Grossdeutschland Divisions. So most likely on the Eastern front, and maybe North Africa/Italy. So if any were left they may have been in Normandy but again the Stug IIIG is the main Stug III variant mentioned for NW Europe, in 1944.  Sorry cannot expand any more.

As everyone else has mentioned German armour in just dark yellow base is fine and I quite like it; and your tanks look very good. But you mention using an airbrush to apply the camo, did you use a mask ie tape or blu-tac? Again apologies if I'm teaching you to suck eggs but have a look at http://www.heresybrush.com/. Lots of good tips for painting 15mm armour. Sorry correction lots of fantastic tips for painting 15mm.    

[Keith]

Italy and Sicily ... Bang on!

[steharan]

Goosegog - I masked with blutack but to be fair my airbrush skills are mediocre to say the least.

Thanks for the info on the Stug III F8, I'll explore the Italy connection some more, also I found your book recommendation on Amazon, I think payday may see a bit of an ordering hit

Thanks for the link - you're right that guy is amazing!

[Goosegog]

Glad I was of some help.

I'm not one for hero worship but Rubens Torregrosa does just incredible work.