Austin AC colours

[Andy Moore]

Hi guys,

 

I'm currently in the middle of a dual build of Miniart's new 3rd series and 1918 pattern Austin ACs, and I'm starting to think about which marking schemes to go with, as several of them in both kits need alternative parts during the build.

For the 1918 pattern I'm edging toward the one below, purely on aesthetic grounds

 

 

This one, and a couple of the other schemes have the blue/grey turrets and roof, and I've seen this done on kits over the years as anything from a cool grey throught to a bright blue. At the moment I'm working on the assumption that the colour would have been Light Admiralty Grey. Ayone have any thoughts on that? The colour call-out is for Tamiya Ocean Grey, which doesn't seem a million miles off if lightened a bit.

 

As for the sand stripe, I don't know if there's any documented evidence that describes that colour? There's a photo of the car in question after it was knocked out, but the stripe and turrets look tonally the same in B&W.

 

 

There's something else that's intriguing about that photo. The rear driver's armoured screen has been left slightly open, and where the overlapping flap on the side of the screen has lifted up you can see a lighter colour than the surrounding bodywork. You can see the area in question below on the kit (I've penciled around the area covered by the flap which you can see on the open shot)

 

 

All I can think is that the uncovered area is the primer/base coat, and when the main colour was applied, the flaps were left closed and so retained that colour beneath them. That exposed area also looks very similar in tonal value to the turrets and body stripe which could theoretically open the possibility that the turrets were also in the original primer colour. Of course, inferring colours from a B&W photo is hit and miss at the best of times.

 

I'd love to hear if anyone has any other thoughts on this, or if there are any written accounts of the colours.

 

Andy

[Kingsman]

Horizon Blue is sometimes quoted as the upper colour.  In fact Dick Taylor says on p27 of Warpaint vol1 that it was a French colour called just that.  Interestingly, he contends that the middle band - when present - was also blue, although he doesn't say whether it was the same shade.  Seems logical that it would be, and the shade in your posted photo appears to be about the same.  Which explains why "sand"  might appear to be the same shade as blue: it might actually be blue.  However, the brown with blue top scheme was apparently most common in 17 AC Bn.  The picture he shows in that book has the blue extending down onto the hull as far as the top of the sand band on the Miniart drawing, with no middle band at all.

 

The unpainted area behind the visor perhaps suggests that the car pictured might originally have had the deeper blue top area which was later partly overpainted with Service Brown and the blue band applied.  That is more likely than it being primer, which might more likely have been red lead than engineers grey.

 

Of course there was no colour codification in WW1 in a way that we would today understand, so any question of colour correctness will always be an un-evidenced debate.  There are only 2 known surviving original-paint AFV in Service Brown: the MkIV in the Royal Army Museum, Brussels and the MkVIII factory model at Bovington.  The lower portion of the Austin would undoubtedly have been Service Brown.  I have long felt that to be a colour similar to WW2 SCC2 as it used very similar pigmentation, and having got my hands on vol 1 and 2 reprints of Warpaint I notice that Dick Taylor thinks this too.

 

The only known source of Service colour mixes for the WW1 period is the Handbook For Artificers.  But as this only gives pigment mixing recipes the final colours are conjectural, and many are impossible to replicate without ground white lead.  It does have a mix for "lead colour", which is just black and white pigments and it suggests that less black can be used when a lighter shade is needed. No mention of darkening.  This is likely to be the colour sometimes called Service Grey.  So a cold grey upper shade for the Austin is within the bounds of possibility.

 

It also has a mix for "stone colour" using ochre and umber with white lead, although it says that the umber proportion can be varied according to need and the ochre can even be omitted entirely.  So a wide range of possible shades there.  This could be the "sand colour" on the Austin, but there is no way of knowing exactly what shade it might be.  Conceivably with less umber and more ochre it could return the same tonal value as a blue or a grey.

 

So while the Army colour palette included grey and stone shades which might have been used, if it were me I'd be tempted to go with Dick Taylor's assertion that the top was Horizon Bleu and the middle band was also blue.  His photo also shows the recognition flash further back, on the angled section where the bonnet widens to the cab.  Still white-red-white rather than the more usual red-white-red.

[Andy Moore]

Thanks Das,

I think I'll probably go with the top and band in blue. Would the Horizon blue be essentially the same shade as the Horizon Blue used on French uniforms and Helmets?

 

Andy

[europapete]

Most likely I think. Also used on metal fittings in French aircraft.  A slightly dark wedgewood blue. Regards, Pete in RI. 

[Kingsman]

I see now that Miniart also offer the deeper blue top scheme in the kit.  I imagine the blue would be exactly the French Horizon Bleu as noted above.

 

I think I would trust Dick Taylor's views more than Miniart's regarding the colour of the lower band.  WW1 colours will always be somewhat controversial and fertile ground for discussion because of the lack of definitive evidence.  Which means that while it is often very difficult to say that something is "right" it is often equally difficult to say that something is "wrong".

[Cometracer]

I think the blue top looks pretty good, myself.