Hello All..... can anyone advise what Color undercoat was primarily used by allied and axis armoured vehicles in WWII. Cheers..!! Bob

Well, the factory normally didn't do anything unless you special-ordered a vehicle, but some of the dealerships would spray on a thick black paint to prevent salt corrosion and such in certain regions. They wouldn't always point that out and try to slip it onto the invoice without the abteilungs noticing.

G'day Bob

Germans used red oxide primer. Tamiya produce what (to me, anyway) seems to be a suitable colour in a rattle can. I don't believe there was any "undercoat" as such.

Regards

Rob

The allied forces by and large used standard commercial primer. Remember US vehicles were manufactured by automobile makers. Generally almost inevitably if the exterior coat chipped the under coat went with it leaving bare metal. So you never saw the primer coat unless you were stripping the paint.

If you look at factory pictures of US tank manufacture you'll see subcontractor parts sometimes already OD, put in a bare metal hull or grey automobile primer or even Olive drab already. A great way to learn about primer paints is research the articles on US aircraft interiors on the IPMS Stockholm site. Subcontractors and partial painting was done trucks and tanks as well as gray, red and aluminum oxide primers.