Info needed: correct colours for WWII Aust vehicles

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Gina,

This is information I along with many others have sought for a long time too. There would be Australian standards of that era but without the relevant colour chips, that haven't faded it is all a lot of speculation.

Paint colours can always be room for interpretation and contention. Ask any model builder.

I have painted my F15A with current Australian Army Olive Drab which can be obtained from any Wattyl Trade depot but usually has to be ordered in. It is only available in 20 Lt drums but I decanted mine into 5 x 4 lt tins to preserve it and for convenience. It is a single pack alkyd enamel so easy to work with and clean up. It is semi-gloss too which again is not technically correct but I had painted some of my earlier parts with Croda Paints Australian Army lusterless Olive Drab which looked good but you only had to touch it to get a mark on it. In time the SG paint will loose some of its sheen anyway.

I have compared the Wattyl paint to patches of pristine paint on my vehicle where it was out of weather and sunlight and basically I believe the WW2 version was a bit more muddy brown in colour compared to the more greenish current olive drab.

If I was redoing my paint I would take a 4 lt can of the current colour to a paint shop with a sample of the original colour such as under the instrument panel or the voltage regulator panel and see if they could throw a bit of brown tint in it to more closely match the WW2 sample. Once the formula was established I would write it down for future use.

Although I know my truck's colour is not technically correct it looks reasonable and presentable. Even a WW2 veteran who drove CMP trucks in the war and has followed my restoration progress could not really shed any light in whether my trucks paint was "correct". He thought it looked "bloody good" and was glad someone was restoring one. Unfortunately like many he is no longer with us. At least by preserving these vehicles their legacy lives on.

Cheers,

[Mrs Vampire]

Thanks Jacques that is really helpful.

I was thinking of doing the Stuart in straight olive drab and the blitz in camo.

I will need the camo colours for the blitz sometime this year .

[Lauren Child]

There's a good series of books by Mike Starmer that cover wartime British colour schemes - would the same colours have been used by all Commonwealth countries?

The books cover the camo scheme for each theatre/period, and have paint chips in the back to colour match.

[Mike Cecil]

No: the paint colours used by Australia were unique. They are the Australian Standard Colour (ASC) and each was followed by a letter indicator. They are similar to the BSC colours that Mike S has studied and that are included in his books, but not the same.

The colour chart booklets were produced by the Standards Association of Australia. Surviving examples, especially in good condition, are rare to say the least.

Mike C

[Mrs Vampire]

Thanks Mike

[cliff]

Mike Cecil has failed to add that he sorted out the main Aussie WW2 colours using Humbrol model paints.

For POST 1942 Aust service green use -
10 parts #150 – matt Forest Green
02 parts #100 – matt red brown
01 part #33 – matt black

Buy these small tins from a hobby shop and mix to the above formula then take your sample to a paint shop and they should be able to match it. I have the formula, also done by Mike Cecil for Light Stone, Earth and PRE 1942 colours as well if interested.

Again thanks to the dedication of Mike Cecil we can reproduce these original colours for our models as well as the real deal!

post 1942 ASG on a 1/35 scale Aust. ambulance



Pre 1942 ASG and Earth on a 1941 Chev heavy recon wagon



not forgetting that these models are also weathered!

[Mrs Vampire]

They look fabooo

and many thanks for the formula. I will do the Stuart in that now to track down the two tone camo for the blitz.

The Stuart has the original American green under two layers of Australian paint and one layer of Australian Olive Drab ...circa 1969 ...that I applied way back in the mid seventies.

The Olive Drab I used was Ex Stock ADF .