ORIGINAL: pattoncommander

Black or dark grey heads....look at any sledge, pickaxe or 60'' tanker pry bar and they will be nearly universally black. Track jacks also. Shovels are used a lot, so some bare metal will be showing. I paint my handles a bit off color from the vehicle to make them stand out as separate items and then too, when they are used, the wooden handles to absorb dirt and grease, which alters the colors anyway. Just makes them more realistic. When tanks are painted/repainted, the OVM is generally removed....in most cases. There are times when pioneer tools (and sadly enought rubber on the wheels) also get painted with the vehicle. So either way is ''kosher'' but personally, I prefer the ''in field used'' look of my tools. Like tow cables...many times they are not placed back into the brackets intended for thier use and just strung along the sides. If you have a tank that has had mechanical problems or has been towed or pulled out of something a number of times, or have had the misfortune of finding a couple mines, it's easier to pick up the tow cables off the sponsons than to unlatch them from the designated clamps etc. Look at some of the photos of actual tanks in the field. Here's an overhead shot of my IDF Shermans and note how the pioneer tools stand out.

ORIGINAL: Panther G

The handles of the wire cutters was actually a material called Bakelite. It was dark brown- blackish in collor. The wood handled tools where probably hickory or some other harder wood so they would be kind of dark also. The metal parts would be a metal color obviously but that can vary. A hammer may be dark but the shovel head would be clean shinny steel from use. So some artistic license is given here with this stuff. Wood would naturally be wood. Dirty yes, as with most of the tools. But the Germans where pretty particular with their maintenance so the tools may have been kept quite clean.