Great War paint color

[bobs1918]

Hello all

When vehicles are restored to "proper" Great War configuration. are you using the same color on WD vehicles as on US Army lorries? Or, as I suspect, is there a difference? Here in the States it is very difficult to come up with the right mixture. We usually wind up with too much green . On the FWD pictured posted by Steve on the thread about Great War trucks remaining is that a distinctly different color than WD vehicles???Also is there a formula or manufacturer that I could reference for US trucks. Thanks

bob

[Minesweeper]

Perhaps I can just tell you what we did on our three military lorries for I do not know of anybody who has found a precise formula for the exact colour used by either the USA or the WD. I think that you have already "spoken" to Richard P. who probably knows more about this than anybody else. Roy Larkin who will read this also has copious records of things and might be able to help.

 

Richard will correct me if I am wrong, but I think that when he restored the Thornycroft J belonging to the IWM,some years ago, he found traces of the original paint on it which was then "analysed" by a Paint Company who were then able to reproduce it. This was given a code number and was named after Richard but described as "brown" when we would have called it "green"! We ordered this paint from that Company and used it on the military Autocar. This was some years after Richard had used it but the formula was still in the records of that Paint Company and they were able to readily find it and supply the paint to us. The paint was fine but I never enjoyed dealing with the branch of the supplying company in Taunton - I found them "negative" and unhelpful and I had no wish to deal with them further after that experience.

 

When it was time to paint the FWD, that was the third truck that we completed but the second military one, we spoke again to Richard about the colour for this as it was American and probably different from the British colour and we came to the conclusion that it probably was not a lot different from the WD colour - so we ordered paint of the same colour again but from a different manufacturer. That worked out well and we were pleased with the result.

 

Now when it came to the Dennis, we went back to the Paint Company that supplied the paint for the FWD. They had no trouble in identifying the earlier formula, but whilst I ordered many litres of "satin" paint - all supplied in one litre tins, I subsequently found that the paint that they sent was a gloss paint and really quite unsuitable for a military lorry. By that time, this paint company had gone out of business so that there was no recourse.

 

Then faced with buying yet more paint for the Dennis, I painted a piece of steel, about 3 inches square with the gloss paint and passed it to yet another company who were able to analyse the constituents of the gloss paint and supply it with a satin finish. The colour match was excellent but we have covered in previous postings that we have found that satin paint is not as resilient to knocks as a gloss paint.

 

If our three lorries look to be in different colours then it is only through fading over the years since they have been completed.

 

If it would be of any help to you, then I shall be very happy to paint another piece of steel and mail it to you so that you can get it analysed by a Paint company close to you!

 

Tony

[Old Bill]

At the time we painted the Autocar, we took some Brasso to a remaining patch of black paint on the Thornycroft chassis and found some original khaki green. This demonstrated that the Autocar is a very close match. Unfortunately, we have no direct evidence for the colour of a US army vehicle.

 

We are also still keen to find out what colour the British used in Mesopotamia as we have yet to find any reference at all. We suspect that vehicles were shipped out khaki green but may have been repainted locally.

 

Steve

[Roy Larkin]

The only reference I have found so far as to the colour used on WD vehicles is in an ambulance company records which revealed that their ambulances had been repainted and that 'Standard Army Green' was used. Not much help really.

[Charawacky]

Do the WW1 wills cigarette cards give an idea of the correct colours?

 

Tom

 

 

[nz2]

I seem to recall bits on paint colour on an earlier thread, or may have been pm. Noticeable here on a number of chassis and axle parts, grey paint can be found.

My son has returned picked from picking up another Thornycroft front axle and upon it is areas of grey paint. Over the top is layers of red and yellow paint from commercial periods of use. Is the grey an undercoat or top coat?

I understand Early Army colours were grey then repainted to green for camouflage at the Front.

The question is: were all Pre-war army trucks grey?

Doug

[Old Bill]

Tim will confirm but up to 1915, military vehicles were painted grey with black lettering. I expect he will be able to find a photograph for you.

 

Steve

[DAN THE STEAM]

I am rebuilding a WD halley and whelst cleaning back the rear wheels i found this as the first top coat and then under that its what looks like a brown oxside i tryed to get a flake of the paint off to send to paint company but it turnd to powder still going to send it through to see if anything can be do with it. the white around the green is T cut to try and bring back the fresh colour.

DAN

[nz2]

Paint colour;

Here is a green paint as located on an engine side cover. It appears to be of a similar hue. As there are no numbers for this engine I can't put a date to it.

Doug