IMPORTANT: the Tiger photos are courtesy of Musée des blindés at Saumur, copy or publication are prohibited whitout the authorization of the museum.    

COLOURS

Despite the enthusiastic post-war "army green" daubing, we can see on many photos the original colors which are : brick red, ivory, and black

The brick red

The pink red is the basic colour of every German panzer, it's the colour of the antioxide primer, this colour can be seen on every unpainted surface.

To put it simply (because there was a lot of variations) the longer the war continued, the more the brick red could be seen.

As a matter of fact, to save time and to increase production, the Germans stopped painting all the inside surfaces of their tanks (generally the lower parts ), there were even some tanks in which all the interior was left in red .

At the beginnig of the war, the lower parts were usually painted in gray-green.

Here are some photos from the German magazine "Signal", they  prove that the red colour was really common in the German industry.

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Assembly line	Panther A	Prototype of Luchs	Hulls of Sdkfz	Navy guns	Heavy guns

The elfenbein :

It may seem obvious, but in a tank, when the hatches are closed, it's dark!

That's why all tanks are painted inside with bright colors; to take advantage of what light comes from the episcopes and the interior lights. .

Germans tanks are usually painted inside with a coat of ivory called "elfenbein".

The Tiger at Saumur doesn't deviate from the rule, and as we can see on the other pages of this site, numerous areas were painted in ivory.

However, everything is not in this colour. As a matter of fact, only the upper parts of the hull and of the turret received a coat of ivory paint, the lower parts (floor, bottom of hull ) stayed in red. We can see here, on the lower part of the roof brace, the clean line between the two colors .

The main gun is also in elfenbein, including the breech; the breech in the Bovington vehicle is painted green, but this was done by the British during tests.

In fact, the exact scheme of the internal paint is hard to define; during production there were many variations, and to this we must add replacement parts and parts painted in the field.

The black :

Usually in German tanks the accessories, mechanical or optical, and generally all that can be handled or used is painted in black. The black has the advantage of being defined clearly against the background elfenbein, which can be vital in the panic of combat. Theoretically, one should find in black a lot of things.

After further examinations, I can say that these parts were painted in black : The fuse box, the TZF9 support , The coaxial MG support .

For the rest , it's hard to say because there is this !!! green paint, which can hide the original colour, but in fact it seems that these accessories had been left in red (ceiling bolt of gun, mine launcher...), or painted in ivory (gear case, side port of turret). Below are some examples :

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In top, the mine thrower still has traces of red.	In the lower right corner, the side port is painted ivory.	Traces of red paint on the locking system , the balance gear for the loader's hatch is in ivory. (1)	The CO's traverse gear (behind the gunner's foldable backrest) is in ivory.	The steering gear of the gunner is also in ivory.

(1) see also the breathing tube canister : traces of black paint inside and elfenbein outside .  

On the other hand, and this is also unusual, it  seems that there was some black stripes painted on the engine bulkhead, maybe to mark the place to hang the cartridge bags ?

Black paint is also used to make many labels with brush or stencil.           

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Top there was probably a black strip, to mark the place of the ammunition bags ?	Label "braun ark"which states what oil to use (can be seen in tanks or artillery).	Marking "puchgerät offen/knopf gezogen zu"	Marking "auf " on the fuel tank level.