It’s difficult to ascertain from the rescue images under all that rust a
clear paint finish, but it’s almost certain it would have originally received a
dark yellow base coat. As to whether it had any traces of camo, I have not read
of any evidence that it had. The Polish resto team never added any, which leads
me to believe that it didn’t, but with just the one surviving vehicle it's always
possible that others did.
My chassis and running gear were painted over red oxide primer with Tamiya acrylic dark yellow XF60 but I am still not 100% sure as to whether buff or deck tan was thrown into the final mix to lighten it! I added buff when painting the new sprockets and solid tyred aftermarket wheels and it was interesting to note on the difference in the final tone using different primer coats. Whilst both the solid tyred road wheels and the new sprockets were primed in grey and came out in a far creamier finish, the central hubs already primed in red oxide came out in an almost perfect match to the chassis. It is always worth bearing in mind the colour shift you get when airbrushing over different primer colours.
With the interior and the chassis connecting points masked off, the body was treated to two light coats of Tamiya fine, rattle can red oxide primer. Switching to my airbrush to get more control over paint coverage and using Mr Mahogany surfacer 1000, any remaining bare surfaces were covered. This also served as a rough pre-shade.
For the Dunkelgelb base coat I used a mix of both lacquer and acrylic Tamiya paints. Each mix received a few drops of LP55 and was thinned with Mr Hobby levelling thinner.
I went with a very slight modulation effect. Starting with equal parts Mahogany surfacer and LP55.
Then getting progressively lighter as I moved higher up the model, first with just LP55, then lightened with XF75. LP4 was added to the final coat and applied from above over the horizontal surfaces.
At this point I could envisage a fairly straightforward process to complete the weathering as per the restored vehicle, but I paint so many axis AFVs in a simple monochromatic dark yellow finish that I figured it deserved a splash of ‘what if’ camo.
With some late 1944 soft edged camo scheme period reference pics to hand the green pattern was airbrushed freehand first. This comprised a mix of LP31 and LP26. This was followed by the red brown which was a mix of LP57, Mr Hobby chocolate brown and Tamiya XF64 acrylic.
24 hours later a coat of AK real colours satin varnish was airbrushed on in preparation for the decals and upcoming weathering steps.
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