This Tiger, according to British reports, was taken to a vehicle park and repaired there before driving itself to Tunis. After careful study of all the photos of Tiger 131 in Tunisia, study of the terrain around the area of capture, and having a local person take photographs on site, I can name almost exactly the spot where Tiger 131 sat during its repairs.
This is the Tiger in the vehicle park:
Although the tank is being made roadworthy, it's hard to imagine any reason why the British would repaint it overall at this point. Their intent was to study its performance. We may therefore assume that it bears the finish that it had when captured.
A portion of the photo has been enlarged and enhanced. Note the shape of the digits (the "1" have ticks at their top ends) and the size of the digits (there is room to draw another set of digits above these ones).
The overall colour of the tank seems to be medium dark. Of course, this can depend on the lighting, the way the camera is used etc, and we should not read much into it.
Now, here is a photo of Tiger 131 at an early stage of its time in England. It's not clear what is going on, whether the tank has been handed over to the museum yet, whether it is in storage or on tour, etc.
But one thing is clear. This tank has been repainted overall, in a colour lighter than the original.
Look at the cross and company symbol on the hull side. These are the originals, and there is dark paint immediately surrounding them because somebody painting the vehicle in a lighter colour chose to avoid them.
Look at the "131" digits on the turret. These are not the originals. The font is different; the "1" no longer have ticks at the top. And the font is larger; it's now impossible to fit a second set of digits above these ones.
The artist, rather than painting tediously around the edges of these digits, has simply overpainted them and crudely recreated them.
Finally, here is the tank in the museum in the 1970s.
The turret digits are the recreated ones from the previous photo. The cross on the hull side is still original; if you look closely, you can see a halo of lighter paint around it, where somebody took the time to properly apply the new, lighter paint exactly up to the edges of the cross.
So this finish, which the tank wore for decades in the museum, is not the tank's in-service paint.
The same conclusions were reached by the museum, Doyle and Jentz during their close examination of Tiger 131, but for different reasons.
David
