Hi Henrik,

You might find these links useful:

https://landships.activeboard.com/t64020359/renault-ft-camouflage/

https://tank100.com/tanks/tank-camouflage-first-world-war/

https://tank100.com/training-combat/camouflage/

Allied WWI tanks were factory-painted by hand. The British initially used a standardized "Solomon Scheme" - a multi-color "outlined-random lozenge" scheme. Reality set in by 1917, with realizing that hiding such a huge thing as it crept across the mud-flats of WWI battle-fields was a fools-errand. From 1917, British tanks were painted a monochrome brownish color.

The French persisted in using versions of hand-painted outlined and non-outlined "lozenge" or hard-edged blob / cloud patterns throughout WWI.

The Germans captured over 170 Brit tanks during 1916 - 1918. These were rebuilt and repainted. Some were clearly hand-painted in hard-edged tri-color "outlined lozenge" patterns - called "Buntfarben-Anstrict" - which were similar to what was seen on French tanks (and similar to standard German aircraft schemes).

There is photo-evidence showing that the Germans also applied "soft-edged" schemes to both captured Brit tanks and their own A7V... The appearance of these soft-edge schemes strongly suggests that they were sprayed on... However, unlike with German WWII photos showing crew spraying their panzer camo, there seem to be no photos documenting such practice in WWI. There are, however, a few photos which clearly document spray-painting being used for applying camo patterns in German aircraft factories in later WWI... So, the technology apparently did exist, and thus it is probably reasonable to interpret the soft-edge schemes seen in photos of some German WWI tanks as being the product of spray-painting.

Of historic note: The first paint "spray-gun" was invented by Binks in the US back in the late 1880's... Several different variations of spray technology had been created and used by 1914. It was, however, still an "infant" technology, and not, for example, embraced as useful for creating the fine, smooth finishes that auto makers wanted...

Aircraft camo took on many forms during WWI. The Germans created standardized plane camo from 1915 using printed fabric - the famous "lozenge" camo seen on most German WWI planes. So German planes were built using camo cloth! The Brits and French hand-painted aircraft camo during assembly when it was applied. But many photos show that some late-war German aircraft types did occasionally have what strongly appears to be sprayed-on soft-edge schemes - often only on the fuselage... And there are photos showing that such camo spraying apparently did exist and was done at the factory. Note that these soft-edged patterns were large-scale, and distinctly different in appearance from the hand-done "streaked" camo patterns also seen on some German WWI aircraft.

So, if you are considering painting a Brit tank as being a "Beutepanzer"... Spray-painting and soft-edge schemes seem to be a legit and viable option.

Cheers! Bob