North African Universal Carrier

[Smithy1961]

I'm in the process of building the Tamiya kit and have decided to do a North African version. Was the vehicle sprayed with Light Stone over the 'factory' green scheme? I have seen B&W photos of a darker camouflage pattern on some of these version. Would that have been dark green or dark grey/black as appeared on Crusaders etc?

[JackG]

Initially much of the equipment sent to North Africa was in European scheme, with  appropriate paints applied at desert workshops.   Carriers followed the same stipulations as armour, so a particular scheme is associated with a particular time frame.

 

https://www.mafva.org/british-vehicle-camouflage-1939-45/?v=79cba1185463

 

regards,

Jack

[Mike Starmer]

Vehicles from UK arrived in the UK scheme until about mid-1942, After then, a lot were already painted with Light Stone.  Light Stone was the overall  finish from October 1941,  Any disruptive painting done after then until October 1942, would have been a brigade or unit application.  Contrary to the regulation.  The colour of the darker areas varied a lot because while some units has small stocks of enamel paint for repairs a range of colour known as Camcolours existed for camouflage on structures and dummies.  These could be applied to enamel paint but it weathered badly and became a bit scruffy looking after a while.   Apart from a design for carriers in the Caunter scheme, no specific pattern was issued thereafter.  They were regarded as too small to waste materials and time on.  So any wavy or patches you see are all ad hoc unit applied.

[Smithy1961]

Excellent stuff. My initial thought was to paint the base colour in a European scheme , apply hairspray then go over it with light stone. With care remove 'high wear' areas to reveal the green underneath seems a reasonable route to take then?

 

Loving this group. After a 40 year break in modelling this site has been a godsend in helping me through all the new techniques.

[Peter Browne]

On 4/17/2021 at 6:43 AM, Smithy1961 said:

...apply hairspray then go over it with light stone. With care remove 'high wear' areas to reveal the green underneath seems a reasonable route to take then?

 

I think that was a technique founded in aircraft modelling, which I have had mixed success with and found quite difficult to rectify if too much comes off. 

 

These days there are a number of ways to model paint wear in amour/vehicles.

 

One is carefully painting light "chips" using a slightly lighter colour of the base coat, then for select larger/deeper chips, add a color mimicking the underlying layer (base coat, metal primer or bare metal...I don't think amour metal rusted easily).

 

Fine brushes and light sponge technique are used.  There are plenty of video tutorials online...

 

 

Others include using oil paints to simulate paint wear in high use areas through modulation techniques:

 

 

As to whether field applied camouflage paint will separate from a base coat is debatable.  A lot I think depends on how the camouflage paint was applied (cleaning of base coat, airbrush vs brush, quality of paints, number of coats, thoroughness of coverage).  Then there is the question of how long a vehicle will last in the field to show paint wear.  We will probably never know due to the lack of colour photographs from the time.

 

Importantly, both of the above methods can easily be rectified if using artist oil paints over a clear varnish by just wiping off with a bit of artist grade mineral spirits.  This won't affect the base layer if using acrylic paints.