Quoted Text
Everything was olive drab; there was no bare metal. If/as the vehicles were repainted after conversion they would be acquire the new color. The M4A4 used gasoline engines, not diesels. The deflectors would be discolored by heat, not soot.
KL
Kurt,
Matt is building a Firefly, so although the M4A4 was delivered in US OD I do believe the accepted wisdom is that the Fireflies were all repainted in SCC15 OD during the Firefly conversion process.
How thorough such a repaint would be with regards to repainting deflectors and exhaust pipes is open to question. I wonder whether a deflector, which I think might have had to be supplied later from US stocks, would be still in US OD as I didn't think any of the Lend Lease M4A4s would have been delivered with them (would they?)?
Matt, from a modelling perspective, though, unless you are painting a freshly washed Firefly, the accumulation of oil, dust grime and heat discolouration probably makes the exact choice of OD moot.
I'd paint it the overall vehicle colour, discolour the paint directly under the exhausts, add oily grime on top of that, then dust and dirt embedded in the grime.
The entire surface of the exhaust pipes will be pretty rusty with additional oily grime around the opening.
HTH
Paul
Associate Editor
