Tiger Tank in Ambush Camo?

MandaloreSC · Post by **MandaloreSC** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:33 am

Hi guys!
I think it's pretty boring to have the same tiger tanks on the desk for years, so I repainted one of those tanks this week. I tried one camo pattern, but I realized soon that this would'nt work, because I've got no airbrush equiment. So I decided to change the camo into Ambush camo (same as the nuw Stuka zu Fuss Paint scheme). It looks pretty cool (Zimmerit too) and I'm almost finished with it. But today I did a little research in the internet and I've found nowhere pictures of tigers in Ambush Camo. Does somebody know if this custom would be historically correct, or would it be WWII (Expanded Universe)?

I'll post pics of this custom as soon as it is finished.

grunt1 · Post by **grunt1** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 12:28 pm

Here are a bunch of Tigers:
http://www.panzer.punkt.pl/strony_www/tiger_galeria.htm

I don't know the statistics, but it "seems" like the Ambush scheme was more commonly found on Panthers than Tigers.

http://www.panzer.punkt.pl/strony_www/p ... aleria.htm

MandaloreSC · Post by **MandaloreSC** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 12:49 pm

Thanks very much, Grunt1! Thats a pretty cool link. These are great reference pics. Well - they don't hold the answer to the question if there were any Tigers in ambush camo or not, but they are helpful. If someone can find any picture of a Tiger in ambush camo, please post it. I'll finish my custom if this is historically correct or not, but I'm very curious if it is.

Moth · Post by **Moth** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:19 pm

Im not sure what an Ambush scheme looks like, so take a look at this site,

http://armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/WWII/PzVIH/

There are some good photos here

momaw nadon · Post by **momaw nadon** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:04 pm

As far as know the Tiger didn't need to sit in wait to attack. That was one of the main rolls of the Pather. Plus there wasn't many tanks that could drop a Tiger with one shot from the same range that the Tiger could do to them.
momaw nadon

Post by **aferguson** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:23 pm

ask you question on www.missing-lynx.com and you'll get the truth. Off the top of my head i dont' recall ever seeing a Tiger I in Ambush camo but i've seen virtually every other german vehicle painted that way so it would make sense.

Ambush camo was factory applied to all vehicles that were built in autumn of '44 right around the same time they stopped applying zimmerit. I don't think ambush schemes were applied in the field but i could be wrong.

Certainly Tiger II's had it so i don't see why Tiger I's wouldnt have, although probably not a lot of them.

Look through the German gallery at missing lynx and you may see a Tiger I in ambush camo on one of the models there. Sturmtigers had ambush, panthers, stugs, tiger II's, halftracks....why not tiger I's?

MandaloreSC · Post by **MandaloreSC** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 1:30 am

Thanks very much, guys! So ambush camo seems to be okay for a tiger, but Zimmerit + ambush camo might be totally wrong. But okay - I think I'll finish the custom the way I've intended it. I don't like to remove the Zimmerit and the camo scheme looks cool this way. I think it would be a shame to overpaint it. I'm going to post some pitures next week. Thanks!

Post by **aferguson** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 3:14 am

i did a bit of research. Tiger I production ceased in August of '44. This was about the same time ambush camo started to be applied at the factories and probably explains why it's hard to find pictures of Tiger I's in ambush scheme.

I suspect there would have been some produced though, during that brief overlap of time. Zimmerit was still being applied up until September '44. So a Tiger I, with zimmerit and in ambush camo is theoretically possible, although it would be a rare beast.

luftpanzer · Post by **luftpanzer** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 11:16 am

I thought that the factory paint job was in panzer yellow and then the crews applied the camo to thier vehicle in the field. At least according to Squandron Signal Book PANZER COLORS Plus there where no standard regs on the paterns to use, only the colors. It was up to the field commander to decide based on the area they where in. And just like in todays military, One Co probally saw another unit in ambush camo and thought it was cool and had his unit copy it. Boys will be boys even in wartime.

Post by **aferguson** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 1:35 pm

If you follow the discussions on missing lynx you'll find that the Panzer Colors books are now regarded as being full of inaccuracies and out of date information. I had them too and was amazed to have to unlearn much of what i thought was definitive information.

The factory painting in dark yellow, with green and brown applied in the field is for the most part true. However, with Ambush camo specifically, it was applied at the factory level. This was an attempt to give german armour an even and equally effective camouflage paint job across the board, as it was 'expertly' designed and they didn't feel that crews in the field would be able to apply it properly from written instructions and in combat conditions.

As stated in my other post, it wasn't applied at the factory level for a very long before being abandoned (because it slowed production too much, which outweighed any minor camouflage benefits gained from the paint scheme) and field mods did still happen but Ambush camo was really just a 'blip' during the war and it was almost never applied in the field...it just gets a disproportionate amount of attention because it looks cool.

luftpanzer · Post by **luftpanzer** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 1:52 pm

Did you know that the differnt color dots in the ambush camo represents various shades of sun light filtering through the trees?

Post by **aferguson** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 2:50 pm

yes i did.

I don't know why sometimes they are represented by little triangles and other times by little dots, though..

luftpanzer · Post by **luftpanzer** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 2:55 pm

Hot digidy dog I got somthing right for once