What shade of green was British armor in WW2? My local hobbystore had me buy Vallejo’s bronze green, saying this was the accurate color. I painted my Firefly last night and the jury is still out on this color. I don’t want to proceed further unless this is correct, otherwise I’ll paint it with the correct color suggested by you knowledgeable forum members. Thanks.
It all depends on what part of the war you are portraying. A Firefly would most likely be in SCC 15 Olive Drab, a shade similar to US OD, but greener. Bronze Green was mainly used on earlier Brisitish tanks in France in 1940, or very late war British made armor.
When I did my research for the Crusader I found that light olive green was the correct colour to use.
This equates to Humbrol Hu86 or Vallejo Acrylic 924 Russian Uniform (direct match)
"HU75 is useless as a camouflage colour on British vehicles for any period. Hu 75 is a dark greyish blue-green. The name Humbrol gave to it has no relationship to the BS colour of the same name. Deep Bronze Green No.24 of 1930 and No.224 of 1948 on, both the same colour, is a saturated yellow-green with a bronze tinge in direct sunlight, hence the name. This is the colour for pre-war vehicles until 1939 and not again till 1948.
As there is no copyright on colour names any paint producing company can name any shade in it’s range any name they choose, appropriate or not. The desert colour was probably a Middle East produced shade close to War Office BS. 987C SCC 7 which was a medium toned olive green. Humbrol 86 would do if you don’t want to mix. From October 1942 Crusaders were painted in camouflage pattern A/140/1 which is why you see so many different tanks with a very similar and distinctive pattern on them. The new colour in October was Desert Pink ZI but since this was new many vehicles were still finished in Light Stone 61 and had either the green or black patterning."
and
*"*Humbrol 86 is as good as any other medium toned green in this case. The order calls for Dark (Olive) Green and a coloured poster type drawing at TNA shows a medium olive type green, slightly yellowish. The actual paint was manufactured locally, as in M.E. area and from photographs seems to appear quite dark to medium toned. One can see the black background of the 1st A.D. sign against it so it is not too dark. I opted for an average shade roughly like SCC 7 which is called Dark Green in Australian orders of the same period. SCC 7 is not what I would call dark, it is almost exactly Vallejo 924 matched against SCC 7 sample."
Here is a website that adds more confusion to the mix. In the end I used Hu86 (Vallejo equivalent).
http://www.miniatures.de/int/camouflage-british.html
Confusing isn’t it?
Cheers
Mike
Humnbrol 159 Khaki Drab is pretty much spot on for British Olive Drab. Humbrol 86 is not bad for a faded version of this colour, but to my eye is perhaps a bit too green. Humbrol 29 Dark Earth is good for the colour of the same name used on many early-mid war vehicles. Humbrol 75 is a good match for the non-camo Deep Bronze Green used on British military vehicles from the late 1940s to the early 1980s - so much so, in fact, that, when I was in the mob in the late '70s- early '80s, we used the equivalent colour in the old Humbrol Authentics range, HP 4, for minor touch-up work on our non-camo vehicles!
Where it gets confusing is that at the very end of the war, many British tank crews had time to make their vehicles look smart, and camouflage was less of a consideration than it had been. They therefore polished up their British OD-coloured vehicles with oily rags, and the resultant colour was pretty close, according to colour photos I’[ve seen, to Humbrol 75!
Other than that, you’re better off using a specialist range, such as White Ensign Colourcoats, or Xtracolor. I prefer the former, because they’re matt, dry more quickly, and are (reasonably) brush-paintable.
Cheers,
Chris.