RFM’s Panzer Mk IV J c/w full interior in 1/35.
There are four paint schemes to choose from, but none explain in what unit or theatre the vehicles operated.
This intrigueing scheme caught my eye.
Anyone have iny idea this vehicle’s history?
Can paint maks be purchased that would mimic this scheme?
Punching out lots (and I do mean LOTS) of tiny little circles of masking tape? 
At the very least making a whole lot of them to do around the perimeter then maybe smaller shapes cut to fill in the centers. Sounds tedious as Hell!
Search online for 1/35 German disc camouflage masks; I know there are companies that make them.
This is basically the same paint scheme. I used Tamiya adhesive masking paper and a hole punch to make a few small masks. I sprayed them one or two at a time, then revolved them to a different orientation and repeated the process. The random spots are then added at the margins.
Would these have used masking IRL, or just painted freehand with a big brush? If (likely) the latter, I’d say use that for a model, too.
There is a short thread on the camo in the Armorama forum archive.
DN Models sells a mask set, Uschi van der Rosten has an article about the camo and sells the masks on their paint masks page (DCP-35), and Hobbyist Haven sells a mask set, as well.
You could go old-skool like the Germans, and punch a single hole in a mask (old business cards are great for this!). Spray the colour (green or brown), move the mask a little, spray again, repeat as necessary!
Now I’m imagining a punishment detail where the tank factory management gives the offending worker a wooden block with a circular rubber pad glued to one face and a handle on the opposite face, and they have to repeatedly dip the rubber pad into a shallow tray of paint, then stamp the circle onto the side of the vehicle, over and over and over again.
I suspect at 1:1 scale the square sheet of heavy cardboard with a hole held in one hand, and spray gun in the other, would get the job done relatively fast. Much faster than a circular sponge on a stick with the constant routine of dip, poke, dip again…
If You’re going to use the Extra Side Armor Skirts, That’s gonna be A lot Of Dots!
If I was painting tanks at the factory, I would draw out the process as long as possible. Painting dots or using a stamp or moving a one dot mask is A-Okay. Better than the eastern front.
If you were painting German tanks at a factory by the time this was being built, chances are you were not voluntarily in this factory in the first place, and the alternative to doing your job reasonably well would be to be beaten up by guards for looking at them funny.
Numbers
In the late summer of 1944, German records listed 7.6 million foreign civilian workers and prisoners of war in the German territory, most of whom had been brought there by coercion.[15] By 1944, slave labour made up one quarter of Germany’s entire work force, and the majority of German factories had a contingent of prisoners.[15][27]
I think a beating would be the soft option…
I assure you that, should I ever find myself in a factory painting dots on tanks–accidentally, intentionally, forcefully, willfully, ecumenically, or for any other reason-ally–I will dutifully apply those dots with the utmost precision, skill, and elan, one at a time, slowly, so as to achieve a superlative result, leaving management with no desire to send me to the eastern front of anything even modestly distasteful. I will, of course, be amongst the three fourths of factory workers who are not, in fact, prisoners of one kind of another but who are, rather, there for other reasons, highly probably related to dot painting expertise.
I’m somewhat leery of saying this, but I’ve never seen any wartime photos of PzIV in the “ambush” scheme featuring the “hard-edged” contrasting spots. The only PzIV in the factory “ambush” scheme that I’ve ever seen featured the “soft-sprayed” contrasting spots.
Having said this, I’d welcome any such evidence of this “hard-edged” spot pattern on the PzIV, but I’ve never seen any PzIV in other than the “soft-spot” pattern.
The “hard-edged” contrasting spot pattern in these instructions better fits the similar “ambush” patterns used by MAN and MNH on their Panthers. The PzIV “ambush” pattern was more similar to the “soft-sprayed” contrasting spot pattern used on the DB Panthers.
These are the best photos of PzIV in factory “ambush” pattern that I have saved in my reference files:
This is as close as I can find. While the dots appear to be sprayed soft-edged, the disks are hard-edge. Look particularly at the turret schurzen.
If you search any stationery store/dept you can find 1/4" circle peel-off stickers - these are ideal for the larger diameter circles in 1/35 scale. You can also find decorative (the design is irrelevant as you’re going to paint over them anyway) peel-off stickers in several sizes/diameters. If you examine most factory-applied Hinterhalt camo you will see that at least two different diameter masks are used. You just use them as any adhesive painting mask - it’s just that you have to apply them one at a time, and remove them one at a time.
I take it that Damraska is actually a pseudonym for Georges Seurat?
I prefer vector to raster but when avoiding a trip to the eastern front, raster it is. When it comes to art, I am open to many things. Once upon a time, I painted a conjectural Panther used for artillery spotting in a make believe pebble scheme.
It would be fun to render a Georges Seurat painting onto a German tank such that it looks like ambush camouflage when viewed at ground level.
All very useful, but anyone got any idea with regards to the unit and theatre?
