"Kriegsmarine Camo. Colors - TB's and DD's?" Topic

I'm interested in paint colors for the smaller German vessels that served in WWII, with the Kriegsmaring, e.g. their Destroyers, Torpedo Boats (the small destroyer types), Vorpostenboots (VP Boats), MFP's and AFP's, Kfk's, etc. I've already got the details for the S-Boats and R-Boats, so don't need the info for those.

I'm primarily interested in the colors used from 1943 – 1945, for vessels serving in the North Sea and English Channel, but would be interested in the camo. patterns and colors of the vessels for the earlier years as well (1939 – 1942), if it is different.

Any general info, links to references, books, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Of course, detailed info will be happily accepted as well.

I plan on purchasing some of the Colourcoats paints, so need to know which ones to order.

Rob,

The DD and torpedo boat camo schemes are covered pretty well in Patrick Hreachmack's Painter's Guide to WW2 Naval Camouflage, by Clash of Arms. They used colors very similar to the USN colors: dark gray (USN 5-D), light gray (USN 5-L), haze gray (USN 5-H), and ocean gray (USN 5-O), with some dark green and flat white patches.

Joe

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the quick reply.

For coastal vessels, like trawlers, VP Boats, etc., would the following colors be applicable?

Camouflage Paints for Ships in Coastal Waters

31.4 Steingrau
33.2 Mittel Blau
35.1 Hellgrün
35.3 Dunkelgrün
36.1 Hell Braun
36.3 Dunkel Braun

I got the above listing from the Snyder and Short Enterprises page:

link

I imagine the TB's and DD's would be painted using colors from this list, but am not 100% sure:

Camouflage Paints for Ships on the Open Sea

30 Weiss
31.1 Hellgrau
32.1 Nebelgrau
32.2 Blaugrau, mittel
32.3 Blaugrau, dunkel
33.1 Hellblau
33.3 Dunkelblau
34.3 Graugrün, Dunkel

Best regards,

Rob

I had not seen that page on the ship camo site. I like it. Comparing the site to the book I mentioned, the color sets look right.

In my view, the Kriegsmarine camouflage colors (which White Ensign Models Colourcoats have) are a bit different from (not as effective as) the USN colors.

I can send you some of my recent illustrations, in colour. I've been preparing them for the second book in my convoy series. I researched them pretty thoroughly.