British AFV - White - How do you paint it

[nheather]

Interested to hear how you paint British WWII AFV interiors.

 

White - is it actually white, or some kind of off-white

Even if it was white do you paint it as white or use an off white

What colour wash do you use

 

I’m not considering detailed interiors, just some colour that can be seen through top hatches

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[Jb65rams]

My approach is to prime in grey (Halfords plastic primer)and then spray light coats of Halfords white plastic primer to try to leave an off white appearance. Then give it wash with very watered down black. Aiming for a used look.

 

Hope this is of some help.

[Bullbasket]

Because I'm not a fan of building interiors, I spray the insides of the turret black. Hopefully, this along with a figure in the hatch, will blot out anything which might have been seen.

 

John.

[Kingsman]

I agree with @Bullbasket.  With just a single hatch open the interior very rapidly becomes gloomy when seen from outside.  I've had my head over a number of open tank hatches this week and barely been able to see inside even from standing on the engine deck or turret top.  Might be different if every hatch is open.

 

But of course if you are modelling an interior and want it to be seen then you will need to use an off-white base shade.  IIRC the official colour was BS Cream, but this is quite a yellowish colour and doesn't seem right.  The German Elfenbein interior colour is probably not a bad starting place, ironically.  But there will be a lot of non-white things inside a tank, the largest being the gun breech.  Almost all of the stowage items, the radio, ammunition, seats etc will be other colours covering up much of the white and darkening the overall effect.

[Mike Starmer]

The interiors of British AFVs were originally aluminium ,silver,  but changed in 1940 to 'good quality lead free gloss white' according to the Matilda tank specs.  Several other firms used this too.  However at the time all whites soon turned to a cream/yellow shade or dirty looking.   The insides of three Marmon-Herrington armoured cars I was privileged to get into were all this grubby white shade even after they had been cleaned.  As an aside in the 1940-50s when I was younger, no one had their window or door frames painted white simply because the colour didn't hold for long.   Thus in my street when the first time someone had window frames painted white, we all went to look at them, such was the novelty.  BS.381 No.52 Pale Cream was used inside closed office vehicles on the upper half of walls and ceilings.

[Paws4thot]

Well, on the question of "interior equipment colour". Colour descriptions are generalised:-

Sides, bulkheads and floor - as above, silver or white depending on period.

Breech mechanism, compensators etc - some sort of polished steel.

Seats - as sides etc if unupholstered; upholstery dark green or silk black.

Ammo - Charge cases almost certainly brass, shells steel or silk black, possibly with identification bands round them

Radio gear - dark green