"What Primer Colors were use on Western Allied vehicles?" Topic

For several years I always used a light coat of either Krylon or Rustoleum Grey Primer on all my vehicles Both allied and german. I did this because my eyesight is terrible and I could not pick out detail in black primer. I found that grey was a good compromise. Then a few years ago in Battlfront's Art of War II that the germans primed all their tanks with a red brown paint. O thenrealised Krylon makes a ruddy brown spray pimaer as well so I tried and was delighted with the result. So this got me thinking what primer colors did the British and Anericans use and it affect the final surface color. So where could I find this info? Please feel free to opine. Thanks and salut y'all!

Bruce the Texas Grognard

For Americans the following seems to hold true. For WW I, interwar years and early WW II they used a green color similar to the Green Zinc Chromate used on aircraft frames to prime vehicles. They switched to a Red Oxide color early in WW II. Some vehicles have been noted with a grey primer but not sure how common that is. In some cases when restoring Sherman tanks they found no primer was used but once again unsure how wide spread this was.

The following is a link to a company which makes paints for primarily Jeep restorations and you will see their reference to a Red Oxide primer.
link

Depending on how thick the final color application and what the color was would impact whether the primer affects the final color.

It seems that USN vessels were primed with red lead. A Navy painting guide (from 1918) may be found here: subchaser.org/home

Ron

Thanks y'all! Red Oxide looks a lot like Krylon ruddy brown awesome sauce! Salut y'all!

Bruce the Texas Grognard

I think red lead.

I suggest you consider pre shading in a complimentary colour to the top coat.
Purple for kinda yellow dunkelgelb or Red for anything green.
With this approach you'd prime light grey or white and then paint/spray the colour into the lo lights.
When you paint the main colour over that then the complimentary colour will give you a live dark.

If red makes you a bit nervous then purple will also work with green reasonably well.

Try your combination of paints on something like a bit of card first.