Base colour for King Tiger

[Roger Sleep]

Hi can anyone point me in the right direction on what base colour to paint the King Tiger
Regards Rog

[Dave Boller]

Depends on the production time-frame. Before Oct 44', Gunkelgelb. Afterwards, as paint supplies became a little chaotic, rotbraun (red-primer)with green and dunkelgelb camo. Sometimes into 45', when things were really bad, panzer grey as necessary. PS. There were even rare examples of dark green being used as a base coat. Keep in mind, this is how they were done rolling off the assembly line. Once the field units got a hold of them, camo patterns were usually supplimented.

[Roger Sleep]

Hi thank's for the reply i hoping to do one without zimmerit so i guess a late 1944 version,
Regards Rog

[Dave Boller]

Sounds like you're aimimg for "The Bulge". The "Ambush" paint scheme would be a nice choice here, but the older dunkelgelb-based pattern could be used as well (you can go forward in time somewhat, but not backwards). Don't use the older pattern w/o zimmerit however, it was discontinued just before the new pattern came in. There's a rather common German propaganda film that was made just before The Bulge, showing what looks to be a company-sized unit of KTs. doing a "pass and review". Alot of books use stills from that film. There's a good chance you may have seen some of it("You Tube" perhaps?). But, you'll notice in it there's a good mix of both patterns among the tanks there. Although it's black and white film, the patterns show up pretty clean and clear, and give you a great sense of how they looked.