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Paint finish, Matt or satin?

Forum for Armortek Owners to Meet, chat and share knowledge. You are advised to check 'official advice' before carrying out any modifications.
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Kevin Hunter
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Paint finish, Matt or satin?

Post by Kevin Hunter »

Dear all, quick question, probably daft.....
Anyone happen to know what finish I should use for British vehicles in N Africa early 1940s? Believe I'm looking at "light stone" or "desert pink Z1" - no BS or RAL codes for the latter - but Matt finish or satin as with deep bronze green etc?
I guess even if it starts with a satin sheen, the desert will abrade it to a Matt finish pdq?
Thanks
Kevin

Stephen White
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Re: Paint finish, Matt or satin?

Post by Stephen White »

Kevin hi.

For the definitive source, I'd look in two places, one the work of Mike Starmer and the other of Dick Taylor, who had written a four volume series on the subject of British Army vehicle colours and markings.

Mike has written a series of authoritative monographs on British Army Colours and Camouflage, the relevant ones being:

Desert Colours; The Caunter Scheme 1940-41
Desert Colours; Alamein and After 1942-43

Mike's work is self-published and his contact details are: mike_starmer@hotmail.com

He often posts on the Missing Lynx website and you may well find your answer there.

Second source is Dick Taylor. Dick's 4 volume work is called Warpaint: Colours and Markings of British Army Vehicles, 1903-2003 (sounds like a Mastermind subject). The series is based on exhaustive research and is very readable. The relevant volume for you is Vol 2 which covers WW2.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Warpaint-Colou ... S68581XFAX

The post WW2 Deep Bronze Green was, incidentally, a real exception to most AFV colours in that it was very markedly gloss. Ugh - gloss is for fridges and reasonably priced cars......

All the best.

Stephen

Kevin Hunter
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Re: Paint finish, Matt or satin?

Post by Kevin Hunter »

Many thanks Stephen, always appreciate your uncanny ability to point us lesser mortals in the right direction :D

I actually have the Warpaint series. I had thought that while colour and scheme details were well explained, the book was mute on the finish. A quick re-visit shows that GO1650 4th Dec 1942, which introduced "Desert Pink Z1", does actually state all paints should be "as matt finish as possible". I guess it's reasonable to assume that previous desert colours, Light Stone, Portland Stone, etc, were also applied in matt finish.

Having googled Mike Starmer's work (other search engines are available) I have emailed him with a view to acquiring his books. You can't have enough reference material on the bookshelf.

As an aside, great to see you posting about your Cent again. Suspect I wasn't the only one getting withdrawal symptoms...
Thanks again
Kevin

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