Panzer II Ausf.F - Armory Models - 1/144

[ID19]

moresby, I have to row back a little!
I did some more research and indeed, the dark grey/dark brown camo was obviously introduced in 1937 until 1940.
Before, the Reichswehr and later the Wehrmacht used a 3-tone green/brown/yellow camo ( like in my picture) which was replaced by the grey /brown for new equipment in 37 and only became compulsory for all already fielded equipment by 1. July 39. This left only 2 months until the war against Poland, consequently not everything was repainted. During the war and afterwards troops found out that the camo was rather useless, the two colors being too close and consequently in June 40 grey only became the new official color.
So far so good. There are enough pictures proving a two color camo on vehicles of all kind, but only very little for tanks. Reason may be dust and dirt, but I still have my doubts, because 1) parade tanks look really monochrome to me and 2) why the heck was that discovered only 10+ years ago whereas only 20/30 years after the war people believed tanks to be grey only? Back then there were enough ex- tankers who would have known, one might think.
Anyway, an interesting topic, and I learned something, again!
This is the link to a German site, providing the official reference documents:
http://www.kfzderwehrmacht.de/Hauptseit ... trich.html

[bluedonkey99]

I watched this last night on the Bovington Tank Museum channel.

While addressing colours, it also touched on when the colour schemes changed, along with some acknowledged variants

https://youtu.be/FM8ghQJ4TfA

[Spacebar Hobby]

Super model!
Really have to take a second and third look to believe it's 1/144! Both kit and work - awsome!
As to the colors:
I don't think early German tanks were generally painted in two tones. When looking at color photos (there are actually quite some, most of them from the propaganda magazine "Signal"), there is hardly one to find. Moreover, the very good quality b/w pictures from parades (e.g. Nuremberg 1936) clearly show very clean ( of course!) monocrome Pzkw I.
I also know that cigarette album pictures from the '30s also show 'clean' tanks - unfortunately I didn't find a picture which I could copy
In the same album you find, however, that soft skin vehicles were obviously camouflaged before and in the early phases of the war. The colors from the album match this old post card:
IMG_20230505_175543656~2.jpg
Of course gray/ brown camouflaged tanks could have existed anyway, as an experiment or field applied, maybe even with dirt.

Thanks all！
I refer to some photos of tanks from museums. Pure gray livery probably exists. Unless they are all repainted after the war.

[moresby]

I'm afraid that tanks in museums prove nothing: most of them have been repainted at least once and often not properly (the effort and the research behind the repainting of Bovingon Tigers aren't common -see the video linked in the above post by BD).
My opinion: tanks and vehicles for the Russian campaign would be in Panzergrau: about the ones used in the Polish blitz and in the May-June campaign in the West... I'd add brown camouflege at least to some of them...

[Spacebar Hobby]

I'm afraid that tanks in museums prove nothing: most of them have been repainted at least once and often not properly (the effort and the research behind the repainting of Bovingon Tigers aren't common -see the video linked in the above post by BD).
My opinion: tanks and vehicles for the Russian campaign would be in Panzergrau: about the ones used in the Polish blitz and in the May-June campaign in the West... I'd add brown camouflege at least to some of them...

Well, but prettier is enough.

[smeg1959]

Just noted that one of our online vendors Down Under, BNA Model World (who also go by the eBay moniker of a-modeler) will be stocking Spacebar's kits (e.g. here's the PzKpfw II Ausf F as built by the man himself in this thread). $AUS18 is very reasonable IMHO, particularly as I've seen the kits advertised elsewhere at $US18 (nearly $AUS27).

At the moment, the site shows four kits from the range but only the boxart for the Ausf F. It has two listings for the Ausf B but, until they post a pic, not sure which one is the bridgelayer (which I desperately want). As I'm buying a few bits from BNA, I will ask and see if they can tweak the description of the "Bruckenleger" on their site. From the product code, I think the one listed as "HEA-HH-14012" is the bridgelayer.

[Spacebar Hobby]

Just noted that one of our online vendors Down Under, BNA Model World (who also go by the eBay moniker of a-modeler) will be stocking Spacebar's kits (e.g. here's the PzKpfw II Ausf F as built by the man himself in this thread). $AUS18 is very reasonable IMHO, particularly as I've seen the kits advertised elsewhere at $US18 (nearly $AUS27).

At the moment, the site shows four kits from the range but only the boxart for the Ausf F. It has two listings for the Ausf B but, until they post a pic, not sure which one is the bridgelayer (which I desperately want). As I'm buying a few bits from BNA, I will ask and see if they can tweak the description of the "Bruckenleger" on their site. From the product code, I think the one listed as "HEA-HH-14012" is the bridgelayer.

Oh, that's supposed to be the kit I licensed to my friend to sell, HH14012 is bridgelayer, that's right, my own version is produced in too small quantities... None of these kits from these other stores were made by me.

[smeg1959]

Thanks for the clarification. Indeed, it looks like BNA (the owner is Chinese-Australian, I believe) will be stocking Heavy Hobby kits and 3D prints in the near future. Whilst it's not in the time period for most of my collection (i.e. WW2 and a few years either side), I was quite bemused by the PLA Army's Lynx 8x8. Just the sort of vehicle you'd expect to see the Banana Splits driving around in, with the machine gun ensuring they cause some real mayhem!