Dear friends,

I am totally new to British AFV and vehicles, so please guide me along. I recently swapped my hobby shop vouchers for a brand new Italeri DUKW British Royal Army.

I am very interested in modelling the DUKW variant in Malaysia 1948 (I remembered hearing something about some post WWII warfare from my folks when I visited some war memorial in KL in the 70s, correct my history if I am wrong )....

a) The instructions says Light Ghost Grey for the veh. (I heard from a plane buddy this color is generally for modern aircrafts). Is this color correct for a DUKW, if so what brand of paint is good representation of this color?

b) Just out of curiousity, are the British vehicles in Malaya of this color scheme?

c) Does anyone have some details of the action of these DUKWs back in Malaysia then? I am very very tempted to do my first tropical dio with coconut trees, kampung chickens etc...


Thanks for the patience.

Cheers
Kiongs, aka music werks Tiger Konigs

Hi Kiong,

Here's a link that will provide a lot of info about the Malayan Emergency.

http://www.britains-smallwars.com/malaya/index.html

Also look on IWM site and there are some good pics of the troops.

Can't say whether or not DUKWs were there as I don't know enough about this event, but if they were then they would likely have been olive green.

The kit you have is marked for the RN I believe, which is why the Grey colour.

Found this on Wikipedia but no pics

Britain deployed DUKWs to Malaya during the Malayan Emergency of 1948-60. Many were redeployed to Borneo during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation of 1962-66. The Royal Marines still use a small number of these vehicles for training purposes in Scotland.

Good luck in your search.

Al

Hi,

have a look about 1/2 way down this link and you will see some DUKWs. This bks was used as a staging area during the emergency.

http://www-bus.tp.edu.sg/tas_home/tas_about_us/tas_history.htm

Al

I'm sorry to be so slow in answering

There are several possibilities.

Olive drab would be probable at this time for an Army DUKW. Tamiya Khaki Drab isn't far off, or Gunze FS34087, though I woudl be inclined to adjust both with a touch of yellow

Grey was certainly used on vehicles used by the Navy and Marines from the late forties. I would use White Ensign models "Royal Navy Light Grey", but "Light Ghost Grey" or even Tamiya "Sky Grey" might well be close if not exact.

"Exact" in this case is a relative term:-) If you get a chance to look at a full size warship closely you will see a number of slightly different greys where the paint has been touched up; much depends on the way it is applied (brush, roller or spray), how long it has been out in the weather, how old the tin was, how well the paint was stirred and a host of other variables

Some of these RN DUKWs also appear to have been given a red bottom in the best naval traditions

hi Adrian,

Thanks man!!

Cheers
musicwerks