As a none Armour modeller, I need to know what paint to use for a British Humber 7 ton Armoured car. But more about what actual paint range carries the correct colour and NOT Acrylic or enamel. So:
A cellulose paint, like MR.P, which is what I use for Aircraft but they don’t do armour colours, but I’ll use Tamiya and any other none acrylic paint. I do know that it’s dark green?
Not sure exactly,but take a look at AK-Real,that line acts just like Tamiya paints,and they also have more nation specific paints then Tamiya,such as British WWII Green,Russian 4BO,various German Yellows and grays
Take a closer look,youwill probably fond what you need
Not sure of the exact colour but from the images you can see there is a lot of variation…
heres some selections from the AK RC range … these are great paints and I use cellulose thinners from Halfords.
Highly recommend AK RC range … Thats a rough idea mate and they also do nation specific sets as Anthony mentioned.
Can’t help with paint brand options but in terms of vehicle colours, it’s not that straightforward - the colours used on British armour changed 2-3 times during WWII and varied from theatre to theatre. Your choice would depend on what period do you want to portray and which theatre of operations.
I’m going to guess that you might be working on the Tamiya 1/48 kit (based on the fact you call it a 7 ton armoured car and that’s what it says on the box)? The markings option is for a Polish vehicle based in Scotland in late 1943/early 1944. That means you are looking at SCC2 Brown as the base colour. There is a lot of debate about precisly what hue SCC2 was. It wasn’t a standard brown - more a brown with a distinct green tinge in many lights. Don’t be tempted by RAF Dark Earth as that is too light and too brown.
Until about 1938, British armour was Deep Bronze Green
Then the ‘standard’ base colour was changed to G3 Green until late 41/early ‘42’
Then it changed to SCC2 Brown from '42 until mid '44 and finally to SCC15 British Olive Drab from April 1944. However, not all vehicles were repainted immediately.
Various sand colours used in North Africa
Various combinations of colours used during the Italian Campaign
Out in Burma, a ‘Jungle Green’ was often used.
Mike Starmer’s work on British camouflage colours is generally the best place to start. The MAFVA website has a good summary of his work. He also includes suitable paint mixes but generally only for Humbrol and Tamiya brands.
Tamiya do a range of lacquer (as opposed to their usual acrylic lacquer range) paints but I’m unsure how easy they are to obtain where you are.
Thanks but I won’t be using any AK paints! Are these cellulose?
Thanks, it looks like the usual minefield, so I might just find a dark green and go with that. Yes, it is the Tamiya 1/48 kit, But I don’t plan on doing it in the box scheme.
They appear to be the same fomula as Tamiya as they can be thinnedby a few different means.
Maybe this helps…
Spruebrothers.com has Mr Paint WW2 AFV colors also
Searched using MRP Mr Paint British AFV and found several colors at Spruebrothers.com
Here is a site with Tamiya mixes for AFV colors. If you don’t mind mixing your own colors. Just piggyback that info with the info from the MAFVA site.
@Armor_Buff
Yes, I went back to my normal supplier and found them. They hadn’t put the armour paints in the armour category and I just came across them when I was looking for something that I could use. So I have ordered some.
Thanks, to everyone who provided feedback it is most welcome.
@JohnTapsell
Every colour that you mentioned is produced by MR.P. I really appreciate the time that you took to present all that. Even more so as I then found the paints at my usual supplier, although I only really recognised them from reading what you wrote and from the link. So thanks a lot,
I’m now in a position to at least paint the Armoured car something like, and the Churchill Mk 7 and AVRE that I have. The 1/48 Armoured car is for the Models for Heroes 48 in 48 (1/48 in 48 hours) birthday group build. There are auctions as well across the globe, so some of you might want to check it out?
Glad to be of assistance. The one thing I can’t guarantee or comment on is the accuracy of the colour matches. Every paint manufacturer seems to offer different interpretations of ‘accurate’ colours and they often vary significantly from one another (if they were all accurate, they’d all be the same).
Yeah, that’s cool, I’m not an armour modeller but the same is true of paints for aircraft. For me, MR.P are a good match and I like how they perform so I’m very glad to have found what I need in their range. The thing is though, and probably more with armour, there are so many variations on tone, due to weathering and other things that any paint used is just a starting point.
Excellent point.
MRP Mr. Paint is the only company to get Panzer Gray correct when splitting hairs on color accuracy. Given how terrible so many big names did in the link below. I think MRP does their due diligence unlike most of the others.