Reddit mentions of Death of the Leaping Horseman: The 24th Panzer Division in Stalingrad

I know the feeling. I remeber when I was a kid in the 90's there wasn't much in terms of easily accessible and accurate info on camo schemes and unit data for German units. There's a lot out there now but a lot of junk too.

My first crash course in panzer markings and camo were the 'Panzer Colors'. They're a great place to begin because it's mostly camo schemes that give you an idea of what was used where and when. They're old school but good school and they still float around online. From there I would look at some books from Oliver Publishing. These are awesome books for inspiration and studying what was used in different campaigns. I have 'Panzer in the Bocage' which is a fantastic camo reference for Normandy, 'Westwall' and 'Last Bullet' which are about the final months and the camo used then, and 'Onslaught' which is on the invasion of russia in 1941 but is good through stalingrad in terms of paint schemes. I will say that these are limited run books and I was lucky to buy them as soon as they released (more on that later), and they can bring high prices on ebay now. The best color template books I own are the new ones form AK Interactive 1945 German Colors and Waffen SS Colors. These are very modern books with incredible printing and color templates. They go into detail about the different paints used and their RLM number codes, and even how they appear in dim light, standard, and shadowy situations. They also cover how dust affects the tones very well and why it's difficult to colorize a lot of the early war photos accurately. These are a must, you'd love the schemes here because they're very interesting and aesthetically pleasing. From here I would recommend books that have lots of data about units strengths and availabilities during particular campaigns. I really like books like Death of the Leaping Horseman,1st SS Panzer Corps at Villers Bocage and almost anything with "The combat History of..." or "Combat Memoirs of..' in their title. These are awesome for their excellent research and citable sources. Books like these will allow you to understand exactly what equipment was used where what equipment and weaponry could realistically be depicted together. I get a lot of inspiration from them.

Finally, I highly recommend joining Armorama.com and Axis History Forum. Many questions I've had have been answered here. Armorama will also allow you to check out the latest projects by many of the best WW2 modellers in the world and their news section allows you to see what the latest products and publications are.

I hope that helps, I know it's a lot but that's what I would have wanted to know when I was starting out. Best of luck!


EDIT: I thought I'd make an amendment for anyone else reading this. Video games have brought a good number of people into the subject of WW2. There's some excellent games out here that do justice to the conflict, but there's also some some trash. This is JUST my opinion and counts for zilch. This is not meant to offend any fans of a particular game.When it comes to accuracy in terms of WW2 German gear, tone, setting, camouflage, uniforms and equipment;

-Medal of Honor Allied Assault: Very good, complex camos and gear were attempted even with the limited resources of PC's at the time. 8/10

-Battlefield 1942: Excluding it's "Secret Weapons of WW2" expansion, this game was exceptable. The details and accuracy were well researched. There were a few embellishments, (Late war armor and guns showing up in early war scenarios), but these embellishments didn't detract from the tone and setting. The overall direction was definitely acceptable. The expansion "Road to Rome" was great. 5/10

-Call of Duty (first release in 2003 and its expansion 'United Offensive'): Excellent. Perfect uniforms and gear 9/10

-Call of Duty 2: Mixed, tone and setting are superb but incorrect uniforms plague it. 6/10

-Call of Duty World at War: Mixed, mis-assigning of weapons, incorrect uniforms and vehicles. 5/10

-Red Orchestra Ost-Front 41-45- Excellent, spot on with uniforms, gear, equipment and camouflage 9/10

-Brothers in Arms Road to Hill 30: Good, but the German camo is early war and incorrect for 44. 7/10

-Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway: Very good, excellent depiction of gear and camo. 8/10

-Red Orchestra 2 Heroes of Stalingrad: Perfect depiction of the Wehrmacht at Stalingrad: 10/10

-Call of Duty WW2: Poor. a mixed bag of anything goes, incorrect everything. 4/10

-Battlefield 5: The worst of the worst and the heartbreak WW2 buffs will never recover from. Uniforms, weapons, equipment and gear are completely made up with just enough factual subjects to qualify it as "technically WW2". Very few things are accurate. 0/10