So I got the new Takom Hetzer (Early) today and to my surprise there is not a single color callout in the entire manual, just color renders and I guess I have to match the paint to the picture? I thought CSM just giving color descriptions was the most annoying thing, but this is worse.
Anyway here are my concerns with the colors they list (show):
Whole interior is white/elfenbein including the floor, and the engine compartment is light gray. - Common sense should be that the floor is either a gray green, gray or red primer, the engine compartment red primer.
Some interior pieces seem to be dunkelgelb (a power supply box for the command radios) - never seen this before
Transmission is a grey blue, the driver controls for the tracks are white - all previous depictions and pictures have these in the same color, a dark bluish gray (maybe due to camera flash) or panzer grey (eduard)
The engine is black with bright blue air filters? - I read praga engines were green from the factory and the bright blue is not in any hetzer interior pic I have ever seen
Most interior pieces (ammo racks, boxes etc.) are dunkelgrau (panzer gray), is this right?
Radios are dunkelgrau all over or with a light gray face, should the faces be RLM02?
Stg44 assault rifle in the interior seems odd, for such a small vehicle an Mp38 makes so much more sense, or was it used with the angled barrel extension to clear infantry off the vehicle?
Shedding any light on the above topics is greatly appreciated. Thanks
I know a couple of things about the colours inside German Panzers, but I don’t know if those practises carried over to Hetzer manufacture.
I took a quick look around the Web but all the examples that I found were “restored”.
I did find this power supply. These things were almost always grey, but apparently this colour was possible toward the end of the war. Not sure what kind of vehicle it’s from.
My references say hull interior is red oxide below the sponsons, Ivory above the sponsons. Engine is green. Transmission is grey-green or black. Engine compartment is red oxide.
Those images are fairly useless as they are taken from a G13 … Like the whole photosniper book seems to depict mostly a G13.
Here a few images I had been collecting …
It stands to reason that given the lack of raw materials BMM/Skoda would not have wasted any extra color to make things pretty. So primer in the engine compartment. I can see Ivory or Sand for the fighting compartment and gray for the floor. All the other components from 3rd parties would have the standard colors. Like the radios. I cannot see any white over paint there … Those parts are installed later after the hull interior had been painted … The blue in the engine compartment feels wrong. The air filters would have been connected via a rubber hose, same as the cooler.
The Photosniper people were looking at a tank without its radios in the side wall. There was nothing but the trays to hold them. So they painted those two large illustrations of a cutaway tank and included a radio set there.
They drew half of one radio set and half of another. Nobody’s going to split one conversation over two frequency bands.
Anyway; the question is now, what kind of radio set should be in the side wall?
And the answer is, you can use the Fu 8 or the Fu 7 … but only in a commander’s vehicle.
A standard Hetzer would have no radios there, and no power supplies beside them. The Fu 5 in the firewall would be enough.
Takom didn’t understand this. They have a long history of not understanding the difference between standard tanks and command tanks.
Now, while it’s easy enough to omit those four devices, and build a standard Hetzer, we have to ask; what was there in that space? Do any of you know?
The “what was there” is interesting. The images from the pre-restored vehicle is from " Army Ordnance Museum, VA, USA". Their Jagdpanzer 38 is a non-command vehicle (all the images I had seen are missing the 2nd antenna). But still the interior shot shows the racks for the radios. Maybe they just installed all the racks and the RF equipment was later installed at the unit level ?
The publisher may have a slight objection to you showing those photos but I (as the original photographer) do not.
I have also published these same photos here on the KitMaker site.
Here is the link:
The cabin interior shots were all take by me of what I was told was an original German Hetzer, owned (at that time) by Kiesler Fire Arms of Jeffersonville, Indiana.
I can’t imagine how any modeler with an interest in accuracy would trust the color callouts in a kit’s instructions. Even if the colors were correct, there are so many small details and parts with different colors in different areas that a good interior painting guide would be twice as long as the assembly directions.
I doubt I would even notice if none were included and really can’t fault a company for omitting them.
I’ve gathered enough photos to start answering that question. I believe it’s just equipment boxes strapped into trays. But there’s more research to be done here.
Another thing I noticed; Takom give us a Command radio set by mistake, but suppose you decide to run with it? Convert the kit to the Command version?
Well, then, you have another problem. Takom give you the UHF receiver of the Fu 8 alongside the VHF transmitter of the Fu 7. An impossible combination.
I don’t know what’s wrong over at Takom. Google for images, and you will catch that mistake in 5 seconds.
