"WW2 British vehicle colours from DD to the end?" Topic

I just undercoated a load of 10mm British WW2 vehicles. I did the lot in a mix of deep bronze green / olive drab (half way between the colours, to make it a bit lighter due to being on 10mm models).

After "dipping" them to black line the details, and add a bit of "grit" I hit the search engine to find out how many to add "mickey mouse ears" camouflage to.

Now I see that some sites say the vehicles would be olive drab (so no need to repaint American vehicles), so lighter than I've painted them. The camouflage example I saw looked like the vehicle was a base of olive drab and not deep bronze green. There was a statement that camouflage was mainly for soft skin vehicles – which is what I expected. So that leaves the tanks in deep bronze green or olive drab?

What does the "state of the art" say about British vehicles in Europe in the latter part of the war? (DDay until the end)

Olive drab from 1944 onwards, one reason was saving the need to repaint the vast numbers of Lend lease vehichles entering British service
all here a google serch found it in under a minute
link
of note
"1944 – 45 The final change in colouring came in April 1944 when A.C.I. 533 authorised S.C.C. 15 Olive Drab for use as the new basic colour, partially to remove the need to repaint US supplied vehicles. S.C.C. 15 Olive Drab was used to cover the obsolete S.C.C. 2 in M.T.P. 46/4A patterns or on its own, particularly after the abandonment of disruptive painting with A.C.I. 1100 of August 1944 except on vehicles still in S.C.C. 2. "

Just plain olive drab?

well that is what the article says..T never bother painting mine anything else

see
S.C.C. 15 Olive Drab was used to cover the obsolete S.C.C. 2 in M.T.P. 46/4A patterns or on its own, particularly after the abandonment of disruptive painting with A.C.I. 1100 of August 1944 except on vehicles still in S.C.C. 2.

The bronze green caught me out at first…that is the post war vehicle colour in the 50s and 60s but olive drab was the actual NW Europe colour for vehicles.

Lend Lease stuff could still be in US OD intill repainting was required, i get the impression that SCC15 was adopted as it was a close approximation to US OD. But yes Scc2 was used "untill stores where depleted" so it wouldn't be unusual seeing vehicles still painted this colour, particularly soft-skins.

A lot of stowage would be scc2 as well.

This will work out OK. I will overspray with olive drab, careful to leave some places, and it will effectively be a highlight over the deep bronze green. Then I will do the mickey mouse on some soft skins, for interest.

Yes, it is mainly softskins in camo, as well as carriers. Not just Mickey Mouse but other black disruptive patterns.

I often do softskins in SCC2 plus black disruptive.

Relatively definitive article by Mike Starmer here:

link

I don't recall tanks in Mickey Mouse..they often didn't last long enough

Thanks.

I start with Bronze Green as an undercoat and then dry brush up to lighten it.

Armoured Acorn is usually pretty good for various paint schemes from WW2 up to recent:
link

As has been said, SCC15 Olive Drab was the standard paint-scheme. Some vehicles may have remained in US Olive Drab (which faded to more of a browny-grey shade), but the British Army has never been an establishment to allow soldiers to stnd idle when there are things that could be painted! Additionally, any modifications to the vehicle, such as applying extra armour plates (very common on Shermans) or converting Shermans into Fireflies, would require a complete re-paint of the vehicle after completion of the modification.

The famous Sherman 'Shaggy Dog' from the 1st Notts (Sherwood Rangers) Yeomanry (8th Armoured Brigade) is the only example I can think of for a camouflaged British tank in NW Europe. There were probably other, un-photographed tanks with camouflage, but it was clearly very rare:

I have found a 50/50 mix, suggested by someone else here, of Vallejo 888 Olive Grey and 924 Russian Uniform works very well in capturing the OD Green without being exactly like the US version. To make things easy Vallejo sells empty mixing bottles of 35 ml which holds two of their regular bottles nicely.

Tamiya XF 62 through the airbush and then work it up

and read magazines where people who do 1/35th display their stuff and explain how they paint it..better than many painting guides..Military Modelling is the place to start.

especially anything built and painted by Steve Zaloga
link

link

and just for fun showing how they looked in the field

I will have a go at air brushing these 10mm vehicles in Olive Drab + a bit of Hemp (vallejo brownish colour used for adding dirt). I will paint the main areas, leaving gaps showing the deep bronze green underneath – it works to make the main colour "pop" after dry brushing brings out details and sort of blends everything together.

I will go with the mickey mouse camouflage on the soft skins (the bren carriers are too small). It is a nice touch to differentiate Brits on the table top.

Now I need to make rock salt (can't buy it here.) I will use that to mask areas of the soft skins not to be painted black.

'Mickey Mouse' was overlapping circles doubt is rock slat will work look at photos and search for 'MTP 46' for 'dapple' and 'foliage' patterns.
Alot of carrier had a 'wave' pattern that should be easy to do in 10mm

Basecoat: Vallejo US Dark Green (893). The highlights are obtained by mixing the base colour with Vallejo Dark Sand (847) and applied by drybrush.

Some pics to my blog: link

Cheers,
Emanuele