Early WW2 German AFV paint set

German equipment from the 1920s to 1940

The idea that German vehicles were always gray holds only from the mid-1930s on. Before that they ran in a varied three-color scheme, and even after a uniform finish was introduced, irregular patches still appeared on them. The eight bottles in this box cover that whole period, including the transition years, when vehicles in three different finishes met within one unit.

The older half consists of the yellow-brown, the green and the brown of the interwar three-color scheme used from the 1920s and written into the standard in 1933, together with the early gray-green that unmasked vehicles received and that later went on small equipment. The newer half is represented by the dark gray introduced in mid-1937, first as a base under the patches and from mid-1940 as the only overall finish, complemented by the dark brown those patches were sprayed with.

For the builder this means one thing: a single purchase covers a vehicle from the maneuvers of the 1930s, a machine from the Polish campaign and a vehicle guarding an airfield, without buying a single extra bottle. The differences between the individual years are so marked that the finished models do not look like variants of one whole when they stand side by side.

Winter and Luftwaffe vehicles

The seventh shade is a washable white for improvised winter camouflage, applied over the base finish and removed in spring. The eighth belongs to the anthracite gray-blue that Luftwaffe ground vehicles wore.

The binder in this blue line is lacquer-based, so the finish resists abrasion and takes further coats and pigments. It thins with the preparation of the same brand, the work calls for ventilation, and the result is a smooth surface with no visible brush texture.