Desert Sand colour

[Graham P Hough]

More advice please on Desert Sand colour. RAL info please and where I can get as a spray cans? Thanks again.

[Stephen White]

Graham, perhaps you could consider giving the search function a go before asking?

[Graham P Hough]

Thank you Stephen. I did actually do a search. Is the German Desert colour the same as the British desert colour?

[Kevin Hunter]

Hi Graham

Not sure that Stephen twigged that you are building a UC, possibly he simply used Dunkelgelb to illustrate the search option.

Sometimes it takes more than one go to track down the info you want, you might need to change the search terms using any combination of British, desert, camouflage, sand, etc etc, and I’m sure you will turn something up. Answers may not always be in the knowledge base - in your case you might want to search other British Model threads such as the Morris Quad or 25 pounder which saw desert action.

Research on the forum, or the wider internet, will help you identify the colors used by the Brits, depending on date/theatre and so on. There are superb reference books mentioned in the forum, Warpaint for example, or a number of guides to camouflage by Mike Starmer. You will discover that colors used were things like light stone, Portland stone, desert pink.

As for rattle can suppliers, again you could google military paints? I have previously used militaryvehiclepaint.co.uk and found them perfectly ok.

I have to say i’m no expert and when I first joined the forum I knew nothing. I don’t know much more now but the info is definitely out there if you’re prepared to work at it.
Good luck
Kevin

[Adrian Harris]

This should get you started:

https://www.mafva.org/british-vehicle-c ... cba1185463

If you can, get hold of RAL and BS381C swatchbooks, so you can compare colours. Most firms who provide RAL will also mix BS381C.

Or there are firms who will take a piece you have airbrushed and mix rattle cans from it.

Though I doubt the UC will take much in the way of paint.

Then there's the discussion of whether they bothered painting the insides. And if they did, did they brush paint everywhere or mask all the equipment, dials etc, and spray the colour ?

Adrian.

[Stephen White]

I saw RAL and clearly jumped to the wrong conclusion. Graham, I do apologise and thanks Kevin for putting me straight. There's so much Wehrmacht stuff on the Forum at the moment, I'd lost sight of the carrier, which will bring in a new dimension to Armortek's range.

You might want to look at this Knowledge Base topic which mentions Mike Starmer, who's written the definitive guides to British Army WW2 Colours.

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=8182

He's written two monographs, on the Caunter Scheme and on "Alamein and After".

In the period 1940-1942, the 8th Army used two light "desert" colours, British Standard Colour No 64 Portland Stone and BSC No 61 Light Stone. They were introduced with the so called Caunter scheme in 1941 and continued with the introduction of disruptive camouflage in September 1942, in time for Alamein, when a new base colour, BSC ZI Desert Pink gradually took over. The latter was probably a colour mixed locally in theatre and so might be difficult to pin down. (ZI indicates a zinc content, which may have been used to reduce fading).

Note that the applicable British Standard 1942-45 was BSC 987c Camouflage Colours, not the contemporary BS 381c, ie you have to do a bit of research to check equivalence.

BS No 64 Light Stone is RGB 202/153/103

BS No 61 Portland Stone is RGB 213/1887/164

I don't know the RAL equivalents but you could look them up in the apps I mentioned in the KB topic or see if a local paint shop can mix them up for you. I never use spray cans so can't help there.

If you choose to use model colours and an airbrush, the most accurate range is MRP, who do a Light Stone:

https://www.premiumhobbies.co.uk/mrpain ... ight-stone

They also do a Portland Stone:

https://www.hmhobbies.co.uk/mrp-338-bsc ... -30ml.html

I've quoted UK based suppliers but I always go direct to the company in Slovakia:

https://mrpaint.sk

You'll find some good stuff in this article which sums up Mike's research:

https://www.mafva.org/british-vehicle-c ... cba1185463

Hope that helps

[Graham P Hough]

Thank you all, this is most helpful. I will be trying these on my 25pdr in preparation for a UC on order.
Thank you again and keep safe.