Info needed: correct colours for WWII Aust vehicles

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by John Ward

does anyone know about the order, or just the exact wording, that introduced Vehicle Buff?

Hi John,

I’m afraid I have no specific information on the colour “Vehicle Buff” or its use in vehicle camouflage, just a few passing references.

We know this colour was developed in response to Light Stone being found too light for Australian conditions, as noted by Dakin himself as early as 18 Dec 1941 in correspondence with RAAF: “Light Stone happened to be the only standard colour to approximate to my desire in the new Camouflage paints….the paint people could easily make up a light stone with just a little brown in it as indicated.”

Two months later on 20 Feb 42 he specifies for RAAF a Light Tone formulation of 50% Light Brown + 50% Light Stone, stating: “This colour can now be obtained already mixed under the name “Buff”.

It’s possible this DHS colour came to be known as “Vehicle Buff” within Army and instructions for its use in the field may have appeared in the document mentioned, ie. RAL/DS Circular Mech Veh Camflg., 20 Jan 1942.

In vehicle production however, particularly armoured workshops, the problem would be to replace the current Light Tone (typically B.S.C. 64 Portland Stone or perhaps B.S.C. 61 Light Stone) with something a shade darker in a readily available standard. One possibility would be B.S.C. 59 Middle Buff, which seems to have been a War Office standard for general service paint. This paint remains on the Australian schedule in mid-43 and is named simply “Buff”, so perhaps it was produced to MGO 101A spec for vehicles in early 42 and named “Vehicle Buff”.

As you can see it’s all highly speculative until further documentation can be shown and the colour confirmed on surviving artifacts.

Cheers,
Tony

RAL-DS Vehice Buff.jpg

bsc318c1931.jpg

MSL Classification of Paints 1943 p.15s.jpg