"Caunter" Topic

I'm looking for a picture of a Vickers VI in caunter- preferably the blue, not green, one. I found an picture of one a while ago, but I can't find it anymore. Can anyone help me out?

I thought that blue was inaccurate and wrong, but what do I know? I'm not Allen.

There IS a recipe that involves mixing various Tamiya colors, but I go with a standard "sand" base, with Tammiya Sky and German Gray as the other colors.
Since it was used in the intense climate of North Africa, it fades quickly, so I then lightly drybrush the whole mess with more sand.

Google "Caunter Camouflage" and then go to Images.

IIRC, one of the greys fades to have a bluish tinge, but there's no real blue.
Shame, blue caunters certainly look attractive!

Slate, silver grey and Portland stone. No blue.

I'm sure I've seen pictures of blue caunter. I remember seeing a Matilda at Bovington with blue caunter.

If anyones after the paints try here. link
LES

Hossierclyde,
Is this it?

It looks blue to me, but there are lots of reasons it may not be what it appears.
1) The colors as they appear on your screen may vary from the original vehicle in the photograph.
2) It may have been painted after the war and not reflect what was actually done in the field.
3) The actual colors may have faded in the field, so the paint may not have been blue when applied, but became blue through fading.

It was painted in the late 80's and is inaccurate, no blue.

I have spent many happy hours loafing around 'Golden Miller' and that blue was actually blue, not an effect of the screen or film. Still is for all I know!

On high days and holidays some old boys of the 8th Army used to meet up around it and give lectures and answer questions etc. None of them ever said the scheme was inaccurate, but them again maybe they were just too damn polite, bless 'em all….

The blue in a Caunter scheme is wrong. Mike Starmer & Dick Taylor have both covered the topic extensively.

Here's one in Caunter for you

Yes, the blue is wrong. But you have to give the lads at Bovington credit. They managed to follow the Airfix kit instructions to the letter.

Here are some links to colour profiles of the Mk.VI light in caunter from the Armoured Acorn site.

PDF link

PDF link

PDF link

Hope this helps

cheers

KW that's funny!

Hah!

Newfangled colour instructions. Mine were from the sixties and there weren't no green in it anywhere!

cheers

I should have remembered that they used Airfix paints at Bovvy. M25 is indeed light blue …

Here's the code for those Airfix colours above link

Remember that most of the exhibits at Bovington were put back together and painted by various disparate groups of restorers over many years, without any central oversight by the museum itself in terms of colour-scheme accuracy. Accuracy in terms of colours and markings therefore varies from the excellent to the dire. They are steadily repainting exhibits to make them more accurate.

This lack of accuracy runs deep in museums throughout the world. Look at the travesty that is Aberdeen Proving Grounds Museum in Maryland, USA. For decades the vehicles were all painted with some sort of whitewash. The Imperial War Museum has a Beautiful Mark V Male tank painted green when it should be khaki-brown. And the list goes on and on.

I like the Caunter Scheme portrayed in the Osprey book on the M3 Stuart.

I like the blue though…

Personally I'd do the blue. The tank (mark VI Light) is useless so it might as well be decorative.
Roy

The tank (mark VI Light) is useless so it might as well be decorative.

Actually mine look very pretty in the slate, silver grey and portland stone hues I mentioned, although I agree they are next to useless on the table. And the "correct" scheme (i.e. non -blue, per Mike Starmer) looks even better on Matildas, a fact whoever took offence at my previous post will remain totally unaware of.

And the "correct" scheme …. a fact whoever took offence at my previous post will remain totally unaware of.

Good grief! Some people just can't handle the truth….