Afrika Korps in 15mm — a beginning is made

Having made the decision to stick with 15mm for my Afrika Korps, I've had the 3d printer working overtime to get the core of the Korps established.
The only one of these models that isn't 3d printed is the painted Panzer IV F1 at centre rear; that's a 1:100 (15mm) PSC model.


I'll do another couple of Panzer IV D, and then I'll get on to transports and things. Anti-tank guns might be an issue, I'll probably have to buy those, along with some infantry. I think I might have a BF PaK 38 in amongst my stuff; I shall have to see if I can dig it out. And I have some other useful bits and pieces from the PSC 15mm early-war German heavy weapons box that can be painted in desert yellow and put into service.

"Desert Yellow" is something of a myth dreamed up by modelers and gamers back in the era of printed magazines and black & white photos. For decades it was confused with the (totally different) 'dark yellow' factory finish of 1943 onward that so many captured vehicles were wearing.

The actual colors for DAK vehicles from 1941 were a low contrast scheme consisting of a greenish brown base coat (Gruenbraun RAL 8000 ) with blotches of khaki gray (RAL 7008 Graugrün, also known as Khakibraun) over 1/3rd of the base coat. To see the real thing look at images of the famous 'Tiger 131' at the Royal Armored Corps museum in England; during restoration work a few years ago, the machine was stripped completely and rebuilt from the ground up. Lo and behold, original paintwork was discovered (IIRC behind the road wheels) so when reassembly was complete, the new paint job was mixed to carefully match these colors. FWIW the panzer IV in the center of your photo looks about right to me.

It's worth noting that Tiger 131 was captured in Tunisia in 1943, after the 'Western Desert' campaigns closed, and a year after the regulations for the the DAK camo scheme were superseded in April 1942 when RAL 8020 Gelbbraun with 1/3 disruptive overspray of RAL 7027 Sandgrau was ordered. Yet she still wears the 1941 colors" one has to wonder whether, given the dire supply situation by then how many vehicles in theater were repainted - if any. Tiger 131 was almost certainly sent from the factory in 1941 colors so they were either using up on-hand paint stocks or didn't get the memo! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_131

Of course much use was made of captured British and 'borrowed' Italian paint supplies, but these had their own regulations too and I'm not even going there!

Looking like an excellent start Fitz. I’m currently building Italians, Germans and Americans for Tunisia (would be a lot easier if I had a reliable opponent and only had to build one force at a time). I’ll probably go for a “desert yellow” too but of varying shades although now I’ll have to look into the colours Stuart mentioned. Either that or give me the nod and I’ll drive to Bovington, sneak in and spray 131 in a nice “classic” desert yellow to help out 99% of the desert war gamers out there already committed.
Keep up the good work Fitz it’ll help me maintain motivation,

Here ya go: a one stop solution in a box
https://www.scalehobbyist.com/manufacturers/Vallejo_Acrylics/Paints/dak-vehicle-colors-1941-1944-model-air/VLJ00071207/product.php?type=alternatives

Awesome, thanks Stuart.

I've been pretty slack about actually getting stuff painted, but here's one at least: a Flammpanzer 1. Apparently they were first used in Spain, and then the idea was revived for the fighting around Tobruk — I suspect somebody somewhere said "Hey, remember those flame tanks we had in Spain? We should do something like that again!"

As far as I'm aware, that tank on the back was for extra petrol, not fuel for the flamethrower. All the flame gear was kept internally, which can't have been a very comfortable situation for the crew.

According to the Osprey/Vanguard book, there never was a purpose built flammpanzer I:

"The first attempt at mounting a flamethrower in a German tank was not the result of an engineering design process but rather occurred as a field expedient, when German troops involved in the Spanish Civil War mounted small back-pack flamethrowers on their PzKpfw Is. The German authorities took up this idea and from early 1939 began to design a flamethrowing tank based on the Panzer II. This was the first in a long line of German tanks to be equipped with flamethrowers. During World War II versions of the Panzer III, Sturmgeschütz and half-track were all given flamethrowers. This book examines their development, weapons and operational use, often using original German combat reports."

When we played out the Tobruk campaign our Italian battlegroup commander deployed a pair of CV-33 flamethrower tankettes and used them with devastating effect on the allied defenses