"Afrika Korps softskin vehicle interior colours" Topic

Whilst they sprayed the exterior dunkelgelb or a desert sand colour to camouflage the vehicles, did they also spray the interior to mask the feldgrau European theatre colour for when they had the top down on the vehicle? I'm thinking about Steyr Horch and Kubelwagen softskins here.

what would you do?

Well looking at photos taken at the time it's hard to tell as most don't show the interior, likewise photos of vehicles in museums as they usually have the hood up obscuring the interior.. Pics of various models show some have gone with grey, some with sand. Me, I somehow doubt they had time to spray the interior, even if it didn't help with camouflage.

And then the desert dust got everywhere, because they were open, and the problem was solved. Dust colour

Originally, the vehicles sent to the desert were grey. The vehicles turned desert sand over time as they acquired a layer of dust. Later, they began to paint them sand in North Africa as they arrived, IIRC. I don't believe they were ever sent to Africa painted sand already but I may be wrong about that. If they were, I don't believe it was done in the factory, but in Italy.

Dunkelgelb only would have been later, and pretty rare in North Africa. The order to begin using the three color scheme (with dunkelgelb base) was issued in February 1943, but probably wasn't put into effect until later. The Torch landings were in November '42 in Morocco and the Tunisian campaign ended in May '43, so any new equipment they received was probably in dunkelgelb, but I don't believe they received a lot (ex, the Pz F and Tiger I models) as there were only two months when they would have received equipment after the order took effect. Dunkelgelb and the sand color used by the DAK were not that close in color.

What was the sand colour used by the DAK then? I thought judging by the way everyone paints it was dunkelgelb, though if you look at restored vehicles some are almost an Iraqi Sand type colour to use a Vellejo colour reference.

Ammo Mig has a nice early war wargame paint set that answers most of the headaches of DAK colors. They also have, if I recall properly the fully developed set.

For DAK color, you will have different periods:
-just arrive in NA, whatever paint captured, recovered (or sand mixed with gas)
-official stocks of paints being issued
-factory painted

From this, you will have not one color but a series of various paint as the operations progress for DAK.

So, yes don't sweat it too much. Either do a full research (buy books) or trust Mig on this one. Ammo Mig also has a full set. It all ends down to which manufacturer you trust more.

The Panzer III at Bovingdon is painted the correct colour, it is much darker than dunkelgelb.

All paint fades in the Desert of course, and gets covered in dust.

I watched a video on Youtube from the Tank Museum about how they were going to repaint their Tiger. The speaker was saying that they had taken paint chips which the lab had found were actually two similar but different colours.