Global Scale Modeller

ForbesHutton wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 5:27 pm Panzers were shipped in dunkelgelb (yellow) and it was up to the unit to decide how much and how to use the other colours. Even with general guidelines from the unit it would be up to the units mechanics, or the individual tank's crew how to paint it. Some almost certainly would have been painted if someone wanted to make a day out of it, but there would be two main reasons' not to 1) mostly, it would be preferred to fight from a hull-down position to protect the weaker parts of armour and the tracks, so painting the wheels would be a waste of time. 2) motion catches the eye. almost anything painted onto the wheels would go "round and round" catching the eye as the tank moved, drawing the eye to it, and defeating the purpose of the camo (of course you would hope that you would see a TANK in motion anyway...). So. either way, but mostly not.

TheNordus wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 6:03 pm Road wheels might be completely painted in camouflage colours to avoid the issue of the pattern going round and round, e.g. one wheel painted green, the next one yellow, then brown, etc. Unfortunately I don't think there was a direct order relating to how road wheels should be painted so you just have to find an image of the exact tank you're painting or to at least a tank from the same unit in the same period.
Otherwise Forbes pretty well said it perfectly.

Quax wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 6:14 pm Agree with above, if you want a specific tank you'll need to hunt down images otherwise it would seem that most early and mid A's were dunkelgelb but it would seem that those that survived or were later ones had paint on the wheels like lots of G's and their Tiger cousins. For a "free" resource the Star Decal sheets you can find via Google images are quite useful.
Paul

Meliodas2019 wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 6:20 pm thanks Paul thats helpful all adds to my knowledge to not ask stupid questions in the future.
thats a good idea I was using a site called tank encyclopedia, had lots of info and camo images

CygnusX1 wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 6:49 pm

Meliodas2019 wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 6:20 pm thanks Paul thats helpful all adds to my knowledge to not ask stupid questions in the future.
thats a good idea I was using a site called tank encyclopedia, had lots of info and camo images

No such thing as a stupid question mate; if you don't know, you don't know - simple as that.

Just my 2p...
If you're modelling a specific vehicle, then you should be guided by any pics/info of that specific vehicle.
If you're modelling a 'generic' vehicle then basically you can do what you want.
Splotches of camo (so you'd have 2 or 3 colours per wheel) generally aren't seen (although, as with everything, there are exceptions) and mostly the wheels would be kept a single colour for the reasons already mentioned.

A good reference site is: https://www.worldwarphotos.info/
They've broken down their archives into: country / vehicle type / specific vehicle types
When I say 'vehicle type' I mean categories like softskins, half tracks, tanks etc and have about 500 pics of Panthers over there.