I’ve finally gotten down the build pile to my 1st tank model - Academy’s M3 Lee. I’ve never built any armour models before, and have a question about the interior. The instructions say everything except the seats shoulld be flat white. I’ve looked in the Squadron book about the M3, but it wasn’t much help. So, I’m asking here. Were the things like the engine, what appears to be a transmission cover, shell racks, gear levers, etc. all painted flat white the way aircraft interiors use zinc green? Or, are they different shades of metallic colors depending on what they were made of?
Any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
I am not an expert but I beleive most US WWII armor interiors were painted white for the entire crew area. I beleive it was for visibility purposes. It is very dark in there and the white paint made visibilty a little better by reflecting what little light made it in the crew compartment. I have noticed the interior of the hatches ussally were painted the exterior color so as not to stand out. hope this helps. I am sure there are others that can go into furthur detail.
For the most part the interior was painted flat white with a lot of variablity. White was used as the primary color in armor to increase the available light without resorting to light bulbs. The main side doors of the fighting compartment were painted the same as the exterior color as the white door would be seen from a great distance against a dark background making it a great sighting point. This would also go for most of the other hatches as well. The ceiling of the fighting compartment would be olive drab. I have seen variablity for the interior forward (driver’s) wall. In some vehicles its painted white, others are painted olive drab and even some only the upper half is olive drab.
Watch the old Bogart film “Sahara” for other ideas.
The interior would be white with the hatch interior colors matching the exterior. Certain components maybe o.d., black, etc. I have some interior shots of a Lee on my site: Lee.