"WW1 British Tanks - what colour?" Topic

Hi guys, just wondering what base colour to use for WW1 British tanks in Palestine?

Hello, maybe here: link

I didn't know that _had_ tanks in Palestine.

Armoured cars, yes, but tanks?

Can you give a source?

I seem to remember that there were tanks in the Gaza campaign, but Allenby had to give them up in 1918 as they were needed for the crisis on the Western Front. So he didn't have any for Megiddo.

Bit of Googling later:
link

(Not that you can really trust Wikipedia. For all you know, I just went there and wrote that!)

Bigger pic:
picture

Doesn't help us with the colour, though…

Well, according to the movie "The Lighthorsemen", there were tanks at Gaza and Beersheeba. So that ties in (admittedly not very authoritatively) with what Polynikes said.

Ataulfo posted a very useful link with lots of pics. Unfortunately, I can't seem to make out the colour on the Bovington and Brussels museum tanks.

Can anyone help?

Polynikes – Wow! That wikipedia pic shows a tank wearing a kind of camo pattern.

Maybe I should settle for this scheme:

link

Landships link suggests that a sand colour might be appropriate. Failing that, the dark khaki brown used on the Western Front might also work in Palestine.

Dark Yellow, or RAF Dark Earth might do the trick. That will be much easier than trying to do the "Crazy paving" camo scheme.

I have a copy of an old Military Modeling from the late 70's /early '80s that contains an article on the tanks used at Gaza. a Mix of MkII and MkIV. The photos accomanying the article clearly show a dark monochrome paint scheme. It's almost certainly the brownish khaki then in vogue for tanks in Europe. If I can dig it out again it lists all the names of the tanks.

I have done my Mk IV's in Vallejo Dark earth and they have come out looking the part and how id expect to see them back then!

Bob

Does anyone know whether this was a typical paint scheme during WWI?:

picture

Any idea what colors in Vallejo or other paint lines can be used to duplicate those colors?

Also, are there any painting guides for British WWI tanks that specify paint brands?

Thanks.

I painted my British Mk 4 Male tank Vallejo 921 English uniform with strips of 830 Fieldgrey with black outline this being one of paint scheme around 1916- 1917 used on captured tanks , as my under standing khaki brown or chocolate brown was the colour and a Belgium museum has a tank with the original coat of brown paint still on it. but it seems the British did paint them green, the mirror news paper in the UK is given away the World War I in colour on 7 DVD and next week WW 2 in colour.
After watching some of them you can see some mark 4 and 5 in what looks like a faded olive green, and as the white red white indenfecation strips are on them this would date them April 1918 plus.
If I see any change of colour on the early war disk ill post it.

Had a look at the DVD's and at the battle of Cambrai on 20 Nov 1917 the Mk4 tanks were green and they had identification numbers on them, looking at the film it looks like some gun sponsons were grey in colour would say light grey.
As this is old black and white film converted in to colour, it is hard to judge the type of green used, plus the green used at Cambrai looks a lot lighter then that used in 1918, khaki green may be closed but not as dark , may be a lighter tone of it. But guess it really up to your self what colour would suit by looking at the film.
Think Vallejo 980 Reflective Green with a touch of white comes near to the early green used at Cambrai, but this is just my opium.