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Colour photos of vehicles in SCC2 or Service Brown?


Rootes75

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Since rubbing down more of our Commer we are finding a lot more brown paint under the later postwar Greens that have been applied over the years.

Thanks to Richard F's advice I can get a good SCC2 mix of paint and I have now got a sample piece of Brown Canvas from RCH. 

I have been trying without much luck to find photos of trucks either original or restored painted in SCC2, I want to see what shades of brown canvas are used as I think my sample is a little dark. 

If you have any pics could you post them on here?

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10 hours ago, Rootes75 said:

I have been trying without much luck to find photos of trucks either original or restored painted in SCC2, I want to see what shades of brown canvas are used as I think my sample is a little dark.

To be honest, any photos posted here are likely to be pretty meaningless. The colour in the images themselves is subject to a huge range of variables to start with, and is likely to have changed as the image has aged. Even if the image colour is accurate, the colour fidelity still has to be preserved in the scanning and digitising process, and even if that's OK, the colour you actually see depends on your computer's graphics and display settings. Add to that the variation in original colours batch to batch, maker to maker and so on, the same variation in repro materials, and subjective factors like the light you're viewing the sample in, your eyes, that colours look darker on a small sample than a large area, and so on ...

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I totally get that, colours vary and especially from older pictures etc. 

I think this is being fuelled by the canvas sample being a chocolate type brown and even in an old photo you would be able to see a contrast if the canvas was darker than the truck. 

At the end of the day you are right and originally there would have been variations between makers and probably units over paint supply etc.

Perhaps my question should rather be can anyone post pictures of restored trucks that have been painted brown that are fitted with a canvas so I can get an idea of what other restorers have done in the past?

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1 hour ago, Rootes75 said:

I totally get that, colours vary and especially from older pictures etc. 

I think this is being fuelled by the canvas sample being a chocolate type brown and even in an old photo you would be able to see a contrast if the canvas was darker than the truck. 

At the end of the day you are right and originally there would have been variations between makers and probably units over paint supply etc.

Perhaps my question should rather be can anyone post pictures of restored trucks that have been painted brown that are fitted with a canvas so I can get an idea of what other restorers have done in the past?

Hi Kevin,

I have used that particular brown canvas for some covers for customers vehicles some years ago and samples of the canvas was shown to them and approved. You have to remember that canvas will weather and dull down, just like a coat of paint such as SCC No.2 or Olive Drab will.

Also be aware that during the war some vehicle canvas covers were painted with canvas paint, so photo matching is not very accurate proof.

s

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  • 1 month later...

Heres some photos I've found in my travels.  Imperial war museum, so period colour photos, not re-coloured BW photos.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205188421

mid_000000.jpg?action=e&cat=Photographs THE BRITISH ARMY IN NORTH AFRICA, JANUARY 1943. © IWM (TR 631) IWM Non Commercial License

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205123914

mid_000000.jpg?action=e&cat=Photographs GUARDS ARMOURED TRAINING WING, PIRBRIGHT, SURREY, OCTOBER 1943. © IWM (TR 1407) IWM Non Commercial License

Any guesses on the colour of the RAC helmet? I have a para helmet in the same washed out pea green, it doesn't look like KG 3.

Mike Starmers books are well worth getting on the subject of British Camouflage schemes, His target audience is scale modellers but he is pretty thorough, and the colours He uses to make his blends are universally available.

The book Tilly Colours by Mike Shackleton and Mike Starmer gives Tamiya colour mixes for many of the British camouflage colours, which you can potentially use to make a colour swatch.

Cheers

Chris

 

 

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Guys,

Yes, I regularly correspond with Mike Starmer and we both agree that seeing a colour photo of a British & Commonwealth Army truck or non-armoured type from WW2 is very rare and often corrupted by the type of colour film but here are some from my collection showing the early G3 / G4 scheme used before SCC.2;

This line up of the first Canadian troops to be posted to the UK and I believe they date from 1940. Most of the Canadian CMPs are equipped with CMP 11 Cabs and Bedford & Morris vehicles with aero screens etc

Last is an ambulance which I can only guess is in SSC.2 from an unknown date, that shows SCC.2 was mostly brown with a touch of green to it. It was a gift from the Canadian Red Cross.

Canadian Army in UK.jpg

Canadian Army in UK 1.jpg

Canadian Army in UK 2.jpg

Canadian Army Morris CS8 Office.jpg

Gift from Canadian Red Cross (2).jpg

Edited by LarryH57
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Rootes 75,

BTW the colour of canvas on trucks in WW2 is a subject in its own right, as I have seen wavy pattern camo on the canvas tops of vehicles with 'micky mouse ear' camo and also camo in a completely contrasting colour like in the attached example, with the RAF Canadian Dodge 3 tonner in the back ground (note the type number on the door). Perhaps by a certain date (1944 onwards) they could not be bothered for the canvas to match!

RAF Morris Ambulance in 1944 -  Note CMP tilt cover.jpg

Edited by LarryH57
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That is interesting, all the contemporary pictures I have of Commer trucks they have patterned canvas, all black and white photos so not sure or colours.

The brown canvas on that Dodge does look very close to the shade of canvas I am currently having made up for our 30cwt Commer. 

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