Camouflage · Germany

How to paint German tank camouflage, 1943-45

The dark yellow, green and red-brown look most people picture for late-war German armour has a documented start date and a few rule changes. Knowing them makes your models look right for their year.

What the orders said

1940 to February 1943: German Army vehicles were dark grey (Panzergrau), which had replaced the earlier grey-and-brown scheme to save paint. Africa and Crete had their own brown and grey schemes.
February 1943 (H.M. 1943 No. 181): Dunkelgelb (dark yellow) became the base colour for large equipment, with immediate effect. Troops were issued camouflage pastes in dark yellow, red-brown (RAL 8017) and olive green to apply to suit the terrain, by brush, rag or improvised means. Vehicles already with units were not repainted, so many got camouflage over grey; vehicles at Kursk are documented in Panzergrau with dark yellow patches.
April 1943 (H.M. 1943 No. 322): the colours were registered as Dunkelgelb RAL 7028 and Olivgrün RAL 6003.
19 August 1944: the factory-applied "ambush" pattern: dark yellow base with olive green and red-brown patches and contrasting dots, designed to hide vehicles under trees.
31 October 1944: a simpler process used the red-brown primer (RAL 8012) as the base, with olive green and dark yellow patches added at the factory.
Late 1944 into 1945: olive green became the base colour, with red-brown and dark yellow patches. Sources differ on the exact order date, and some vehicles reached the front in plain olive green for units to camouflage.

Summary of the orders as documented by the sources below. Photos of the real vehicle beat any rule of thumb.

What that means for your model

Your scenario	Base colour	Camouflage
1939 (Poland)	Dark grey	Brown patches on many vehicles
1940-42 (France, Barbarossa)	Dark grey	Usually none
Early-mid 1943 field vehicle	Dark grey or dark yellow	Hand-applied stripes or patches, often over grey
Kursk 1943 to summer 1944	Dark yellow	Green and/or red-brown, unit-applied, wide variety
Late 1944	Dark yellow, or red primer	Factory ambush or hard-edged patches
1945	Olive green, or any of the above	Red-brown and dark yellow patches; lots of variety

Painting it at 28mm

Prime and base
Prime, then lay down your dark yellow in thin coats. An airbrush is easiest, but a brush works if you thin the paint well.
Plan the pattern
Look at a photo of a vehicle from your period and copy the feel: wavy bands, blotches or thin lines. Sketch it lightly with a pencil or a fine brush first.
Apply green and brown
For sprayed patterns, use an airbrush or soft-edged stippling with an old brush. Hard-edged patterns can be painted directly. Leave plenty of the base showing.
Unify
A light filter or wash over everything pulls the three colours together. Then add markings, chipping and weathering.

Painting it at 15mm

Keep the pattern simpler and slightly bolder than real life, and lighten all three colours a little. A real vehicle in sunlight looks lighter than a small model painted in the exact colour, so modellers lighten colours for scale. See 15mm vs 28mm.

Winter whitewash

Whitewash was washable and wore off fast. Paint the full camouflage first, then stipple or dry-brush off-white over it, letting colour show on edges, around hatches and where crew climbed.