BCC - British Colour Council Dictionary of Colour Standards

[William Marshall]

Can anyone help me with a scan or pdf of this book, I need it for my own research purposes wrt military heraldry. Any of the 1930's, 1950's or later versions will help. 

My email is mechinf(at)netactive.co.za 

Thanks 

William

[William Marshall]

How do you Brits research your own colours if no one seems knows anything about this subject, just wondering?

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

It's not relevant to most British military subjects. I must admit I had never heard of this until now but a quick Google shows me why - it's full of plants and the post office etc. I have plenty of primary references on British colours otherwise

[William Marshall]

Jamie

 

The BCC was used for material colours ie: uniforms and also other horticultural uses. Thus one finds colour cards of military badges and uniforms quoted in the BCC colours for when it was necessary to produce the badge or uniform the correct shade of any particular colour could be used by the material manufactures. I am looking for a copy of this document as it refers back to paint colours and their names as well. 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I did learn that about it at the time William, hence my response - it's not relevant to most British military subjects. I should have further qualified that at the time by expanding that most model paints are intended for equipment / vehicles / machines rather than to replicate the colour of fabrics and textiles, and even where figure painters are accommodated for in the market, the majority of those modellers observe that since uniform colours change variably even when being washed and conclude that there's no sense in getting too hung up on the exact shade.

 

Like most old British documents, they tend to be rare and hard to find. Where the British Standards Institute does hold copies of most things, all you can get from them usually are black and white photocopies and even then they charge around £150 if memory serves from the last one I bought (BS390/1929 I think) - even then it was useless but I couldn't see what was contained until I'd paid for it.

 

For uniform colours, I get the impression that most figure painting modellers just refer loosely to preserved museum exhibits of which there are many.

 

If it's British military vehicle colours you're interested in, then it may well be BS.987C you need. I know Mike Starmer (an occasional contributor here) has a copy of that (because he kindly loaned it to me).