SPA Modeler

It is very possible; especially in the early part of the campaign before the T-34 was seen in abundance. The Germans were moving so fat that by the time winter came, they may not have had such clean vehicles, given the short time they would have had to clean them. They would have taken care of basic maintenance to keep them working, but appearance would have not been attended to so much during those hectic days.

I like it! Keep going Owl!

Shaping up very nicely there Owl. And to answer your question, yes, a Panzer on the Eastern Front could easily survive long enough to get quite dirty. All it takes is a few days for a tank in normal field conditions to become absolutely filthy. A couple warm dry days for dust followed by a day or two of rain to streak that dust and add mud... voila! Paved roads in that theater were few and far between, so almost all travel was on dirt roads once the tank was away from the rail transport.