Primer colors under armor?

What color was the primer paint for:

German Armor
Japanese Armor
American Armor
Brit Armor

What color is modern US armor primer?

Mike

Modern American armor is generally primed in that base (flat) forest green that is the base coat for our NATO 3-color scheme. When I visited the UDI factory in York, PA (where they make Bradleys, MLRS, AAV7A1s, M88A2s), they dunk the aluminum armor components into a chromate solution and they come out a greenish yellow color.

A lot of the vehicles being built are now being produced in desert tan, but parts are still being supplied in forest green (like road wheels, a fender or storage box cover). So the vehicles are starting to have a base coat of tan. If the vehicle is going to a unit that needs it NATO camouflaged, it gets the scheme applied. Otherwise, they just paint the tan vehicle with green parts with a desert tan overcoat.

German armored varied though-out the war. Most were red-brown primer, most later on in the war left the factory in primer, and left the rest to crews.

japanese had a simular color to red-brown primer, that would work fine

British WWII armor was mostly a green primer, same with American WWII armor.

The M-60 series was primed with a red oxide primer, I think the M-1 family is too, but I’m not positive about that.