Painting your Chieftains (and other post-WW2 vehicles)

[Chris Hall]

I'm not personally doing a Chieftain, but while researching paint schemes for my Korean War Quad, limber and 25-pdr I came across this document on t'interweb that seems authoritative:

http://www.warwheels.net/images/British ... liott1.pdf (also available on other sites).

It certainly helped me with regard to authentic early 1950's colours - I hope it provides you with some ideas too !

All the best,

Chris

[Phil Woollard]

Just great Chris! Love the Artillery System 90 Photo (AS90) at Larkhill, now that would make an impressive Armortek vehicle indeed

[Stephen White]

Chris, it's an excellent and very useful reference for which many thanks. I've taken the liberty of copying a link across to my "Chinese Eye Chieftain" where I'll pick up a couple of comments. I'll have to see if I can return the favour with something relevant to your M3.

[Richard Goodwin]

Hi Chaps,

First a couple of useful links that may help:
1. https://acrylicosvallejo.com/wp-content ... colors.pdf
2. https://www.ralcolorchart.com

The first link does have the Berlin Camo!

Whilst I have the RAL colours for the upper decks for Berlin Camo, I am uncertain as to the colour of the lower hull, wheels and suspension! Limited research has thrown up either Bronze green or semi-gloss black. Is anybody able to confirm what it actually should be?

Lastly, does anybody know if you can get acrylics mixed to match the RAL system?

Many thanks

[Mark Heaps]

I believe matt bronze-green would be correct. I never experienced wheels or any other part of the running gear being delivered in a different colour.
Also no tactical advantage to be gained by repainting them in a different colour..
Mark

[Richard Goodwin]

Spent this evening reading the Tankograd book on the Berlin Brigade which advises that the lower hull and running gear were painted black. The included pictures would indicate either semi-gloss or matt was used. I suppose for parades, semi-gloss may be the preferred option! It wasn't just Chieftains, it was also ARRVs and 432s as well.

Also, another interesting fact arose whilst reading this book. Like most engineers, I tend to look at the pictures and ignore the text and for sometime, I wondered why the blue grey in some of the pictures looked a lot bluer than grey. Well the answer according to Tankograd is that the original RAL 7031 blue grey matched the colour of the tarmac however, in later years as part of a cost saving measure, this was changed to RAF blue grey and that colour certainly matches some of the pictures in the book.

Hope this helps others that may be considering the Berlin Brigade colour scheme.