Info needed: correct colours for WWII Aust vehicles

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Big D

There are some spots where you can clearly see the darker green (post war?) so I am wondering if a lot of that was stripped back at some stage judging by the pieces that are left.

That's my conclusion too Darryl. The impression I get from your photos is a panel which has been stripped back to bare metal using paint stripper, with stubborn areas attacked with a paint scraper leaving the odd fragment here and there. I suspect these fragments are the only original paint we're seeing, and if you work very carefully on them you may find other paint layers underneath, including primer.

Having been stripped back to bare metal it appears to have been repainted without primer, causing extensive rust formation due to extremely thin coat of porous matt paint. I agree the reddish colour does not look like primer, and it's also contiguous with the darker rust patches. Rust forms a variety of compounds in a range of colours depending on oxygen concentration and the presence of other elements, including chemicals in paint stripper if not washed off immediately and thoroughly. I think rust is a more likely interpretation of this colour than red primer, and the proof will be change in colour now that it's fully exposed to air and moisture.

At some later stage the vehicle appears to have undergone a second repaint consisting of grey primer followed by olive drab of some kind.

If the vehicle has indeed been stripped back to bare metal as I suspect, then the key to identifying original paintwork lies entirely in the tiny surviving fragments. That's where I'd start looking myself, and provided there are enough of them sufficiently dispersed it should be possible to confirm camo if present. I'd also give serious thought to Mike's suggested technique in this case, as it requires only the tiniest fragment to provide full paint history. The difficulty of course will be chipping it off the granular armour plate surface, which I expect would provide far greater adhesion than sheet metal. It may be worth trying to soften with paint stripper first, allowing it plenty time to penetrate. Whatever technique is employed it's clear that a forensic approach is required here.

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