Scharnhorst, final camouflage

[Olaf Held]

Here's Rob's beautiful CG-Scharny. Rob and I were discussing the number of colours on the superstructure, he saw four, I saw three, but I may have had not the photo quality needed. I was going by the number of paints that were available according to the paint regulations*, and since there were not enough grey tones, the lightest of the four tones could have been off-white. I'm still in doubt about that, but with regard to the bow and stern, yes I have seen photos on which these areas are so bright, that I recommend them to be painted white. This would be in line with "known" colours and schemes of other KM-warships of that time in that area.


Happy painting ~ Olaf!

* Those from 1941, since those from 1944 were not applicable in 1943. At least this is what I thought a couple of years ago. Today I'm leaning towards the possibility that they've followed the Dechend recommendations from 1942/43, meaning that they were painting their ships according to regulations even before that regulation had been issued. This further means that they could have used anything to their liking, even paints they may have found in Norwegian paint stores, making it absolutley impossible pinning down "exact" colours some 70 years later.

[SeanF]

Thanks much, Olaf! Any thoughts on the funnel cap above the flare, i.e. aluminumbronze, black, or one of the dark grays of the camo pattern? From photos, it looks like perhaps the very top portion of the cap (above the flare) looks pretty dark September '43, but it's notably lighter in Dec. '43 (just faded? but definitely far from black at the time)

- Sean F.

[Olaf Held]

I assume it just had faded, I need to look at photos again. But,... who would tell you it's wrong? There doesn't seem to be much of a difference between the camo dark grey and faded black, and you could always get away with it by saying "scale effect"...


Happy painting ~ Olaf!

[RoyMac]

Dear All

Late to the party here but I'm just about to start in on my Dragon 1/350 Scharnhorst and intend to paint her in the final scheme. I've noted Antonio Bonomi's in depth stuff and excellent renderings of the Ostfront scheme. I've also just bought the Draminski AoTS book.

The book's introduction thanks Antonio for his help in putting the book together.

Here's the thing...

The Ostfront scheme on pages 72/73 differs from the most recent renderings I have from the internet attributed to Antonio. This is particularly noticeable around the bridge/forward superstructure, funnel and Anton and Bruno areas and the fact that the bow and stern areas appear light grey rather than off white.

Just wondered if the version shown in AoTS was in fact the result of the latest research by Antonio and/or whether it is considered as definitive as possible at this time?

Many Thanks