I am toying with the idea of building a couple of 1/35 LVTs. I've seen reference to them being painted Ocean Grey, O.D. and the late war OD/red brown/ sand / black camo. Is there any historical evidence of any having been painted any sort of blue/ grey or multi tone green using USN paint stock? I know there were several shade of green , primarily for the PT boat fleet. And the big boys used a couple different shades of blue and grey for camo. Would seem logical that Uncle Sam's Misguided Children would have "acquired" some to break up the lines of their traks.

The short answer is "yes." I'm sure Frenchy or others will have some photos to support my point. There were THOUSANDS of these vehicles produced (over 18,000) and they were used in numerous operations, so the camo variants are wide.

Whatever you do, however, avoid the Italeri rubber band tracks like death!

Yes.

LVTs were originally procured by the Navy so the initial orders were ocean gray. In May 1944 the Army issued an order that any LVTs in gray were to be repainted olive drab when repainting was required.

And



for example.

KL

Some PTO landings color footages :

Okinawa :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2zekj_qZOc

Iwo Jima :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPNzTZEMHE4

H.P.

Built a number of the Italeri kits (5 to be exact) and found that if you use the kit tracks you have to use a metal axle for the front drive wheels. The tension of the tracks is too much for the kit supplied plastic axles. Also, it is impossible to join the kit tracks (each consists of two sections) by the usual method of melting the pins. I used thin wire from plastic bag tie wraps to join them and it is barely noticeable. Hope this helps. Al

Tim,

Two things. First, USN colors were created from White Base Paint 5-U and Blue Tinting Material 5-BTM, and were mixed as needed by the crew. This is in accordance with SHIPS-2 instructions. There were no pre-mixed colors carried in paint lockers until the very end of the war when the Navy started introducing the neutral colors to replace the blue colors (mid 1945).

Second, anecdotal accounts I've been told and read say that when tracked vehicles (such as the LVT's) were repainted on board ship, they would draw the paint from the paint locker, and mix according to the camouflage measure that was applied to the mother ship. For instance, if LST-2345 was painted in Measure 21 (overall Navy Blue 5-N), then all of the vehicles would be painted overall 5-N. However, if lets say APA-1234 was painted in Measure 22 (graded scheme of 5-N and Ocean Grey 5-O), depending on the ship's chief in charge of the mixing detail, you could have either 5-N or 5-O painted vehicles. Also, as a side note, the paints were thinned with whatever was at hand when mixing, so there could have been actual thinners used, of more than likely gasoline (more than a few stories about that), so the color itself may or may not match the prescribed shade, and may not fully cover the color underneath.

Now, a qualifier. The navy did develop a series of greens for amphibious use. Mixing was the same as the blues, but they used Green Tinting Material 5-GTM instead of the blue. Also, there was a pre-mixed tan color used in some designs. An example is this:



Once again, the colors used on vehicles would depend oon if the mother ship was painted in one of these green schemes, and not a blue scheme.

So, your answer is multi-faceted. First, you'd have to determine the ship the LVT was assigned to (that will give you the possible colors used), and then determine if repainting occurred on board. Or, you could just run with it and see what happens...

Jon

I have one of those kits and plan to use the Navy Grey. Just think of all of the weathering you can do with all of that water and metal! Lots of grea tphotos available on the web and tou tube videos.

Adam Wilder built an amazing blue(ish) LVT... http://ipmsmalta.forumotion.net/t1812-another-joint-venture-with-adam-wilder-lvt-saipen

Too rusty for my tastes. These vehicles were in constant usage across the Pacific, so unless it's a knocked-out LVT, I don't see the rusting as appropriate. One man's opinion.

It seems like more wet, light mud than rust to me...