Greetings. I am going to re-open an old subject. Much has been written about German and Allied tank interior colors. For many years, I simply followed prevailing attitudes and painted everything with either Floquil Buff, an off/tan-white, or Tamiya Buff, a slightly more light color.
However, since those days, I actually had the opportunity to get/see inside numerous tanks,including Tiger, Panther, King Tiger, and found their actual interior colors (all original) to be actually just white, not off-white/tan. Granted, after 70 years they were a bit dirty and oxidized, but originally they were definitely white. So was the old, original prevailing logic on interior colors a bit off, or were different companies using different colors? Obviously, many different manufacturers were involved-Alkett, Krupp, MNH, MAN, Herschel, etc., so was the basic IDEA supposed to be buff/off-white and some just used plain old white (I have also seen interiors a medium light gray). For those who have seen interiors of German tanks, what is your take on this subjects. I have seen several original Panthers and Tigers just painted white, but maybe they were just the exception? Lower hulls were mostly primer red, but crew areas, that's where my question lies. I see arbitrary painting of tanks in newer models that just doesn't look right. I am finishing 5 Takom Bergepanther As, and the instructions shows crew areas painted like a Panzer Dark Yellow, which does not seem right, at all.
Lastly, the same question concerning the interior of American tanks, particularly Sherman's, Priests, Stuart's. What is considered the dominant paint schemes for interiors?
I appreciate any thoughts. I am entering a "paint phase" in my model building, and want to get my stuff straight before embarking on a mass painting episode. I have maybe 20 models to interior paint as well as exterior base-paint, but I want to get the interior right first time. I hate unnecessarily repainted models. I want to get it right the first time.
Thanks for any advice.
Mark Pinson
[email protected]

Open topped vehicles interior is usually painted the same as the surrounding exteriors base color. The white you see in the German tanks was Ivory if orrigional. If in the 1950's someone painted the interior white then what you saw was white.

Interesting, and strange as documents point to the use of Efelbein for interiors. Are you absolutely sure the interior paint is original? not even from a few years after captured?

Also it would be good to know if you carried something 100% white to compare on site, often colours look different depending on light and surrounding tones.

In any case, as Greg has noted, open areas where painted like the exterior. The driving compartment of the Bergepanther should have followed this rule, and in fact if I remember correctly there are photos showing it in a light colour which is not red nor white.

Thanks very much for the information. After reading the comments, I realized that the comment about "ivory white" possibly is the most important. The white that I have seen on the interiors was not a "pearl white", so calling the white "ivory white" is probably more accurate. So the fine line between buff and ivory white would be almost discernable. Anyway, , I looked at Tamiya' s XF-57 Buff, which I had used for interiors in past time (along with Floquil's Interior Buff, which had a bit more to it), and realized it might be looked as an off-ivory white.
Long story short-it's probably not worth agonizing over. I just wanted to get an opinion. With the new tanks with interiors and clear hulls, I just wanted to get a second opinion before I start spray and hand painting interiors that, now, will obviously be much more seen and scrutinized.
Thanks for all the help.
Regards,
Mark Pinson
[email protected]