restoration Paint and markings for an M3A1 Stuart‏

[the_shadock]

Hello,

 

a French well-known association is currently restoring an M3A1 Stuart, which is a former Brazilian tank :

 

http://www.asphm.com/projets/projet_m3a1_stuart_2/projet_m3a1_stuart.html

 

The owner would like to paint the Stuart in sand with green camouflage and to put correct and accurate markings, and he would like that the tank looks like it was used by British troops in North Africa. Do you have any period photo or drawing that we can use to correctly paint the tank please? I'm not even sure that the Brits used M3A1s with a welded (not riveted) hull in North Africa.

 

thanks for any help

 

Pierre-Olivier

[Niels v]

It might be worth searching the photo archives of Imperial war museum, there are plenty of pictures there:

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search?query=stuart&items_per_page=10&f[0]=webCategory%3Aphotographs&f[1]=contentDate%3ASecond%20World%20War

The picture is from IWM

 

most seem to be the riveted versions and only sand coloured.

 

another option is to look at model kit, usually the supplied markings and suggested paint jobs in those are based on real vehicles.

Edited January 8, 2014 by Niels v

[Lauren Child]

The camo pattern with the straight lines radiating out of the vehicle front is called Caunter Scheme, used for the early part of the campaign. It's covered in Mike Starmer's book Desert Colours - The Caunter Scheme 1940-41.

 

It's followed by his "Desert Colours - Alamein and After 1942-43" which is the one I think you are looking for.

 

Both have paint chips so you can colour match. They're aimed at model makers but they're pretty good references and the only place I know of to verify the colours against reasonably good copies (albeit there was some variation originally).

 

There's a brief overview here - http://www.mafva.net/other%20pages/Starmer%20camo.htm although the books go into a lot more detail, and are worth it for the paint chips.

 

It's also worth checking out the "Warpaint" series of books by Alan McNeilly.

[Niels v]

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060033073

[simon king]

Hello,

 

a French well-known association is currently restoring an M3A1 Stuart, which is a former Brazilian tank :

 

http://www.asphm.com/projets/projet_m3a1_stuart_2/projet_m3a1_stuart.html

 

The owner would like to paint the Stuart in sand with green camouflage and to put correct and accurate markings, and he would like that the tank looks like it was used by British troops in North Africa. Do you have any period photo or drawing that we can use to correctly paint the tank please? I'm not even sure that the Brits used M3A1s with a welded (not riveted) hull in North Africa.

 

thanks for any help

 

Pierre-Olivier

 

This might help as well

 

http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/bellmanwm_1.htm

 

sk