I am doing a small dio of this scene:



It is a scene just outside of Naples, Italy, of British infantrymen manning a 6-pnd A/T gun. They have seen action in Africa, as they are wearing KD's.

My question is... as the infantry have been in Africa, does this mean the gun was in Africa? Will the gun be painted in the factory std olive drab or, having been in Africa, will it be the repainted desert brown? Or will it have been repainted back to olive drab? Complicated? I know! :-) :-)

Hi Rudi

The base colour for British equipment in Italy was a shade called 'Light Mud' (SCC5). Have a look at this page from the MAFVA website (find it towards the bottom of the page).

http://www.mafva.org/britishcamo1.asp

Humbrol mix for 'Light Mud' is on this page of the article

http://www.mafva.org/britishcamo3.asp

If the gun had come direct from Britain, it would (probably) have been painted dark brown (SCC1a)

Hope this helps.

PS did you read my reply to your complaint about not being able to get the Osprey Battledress MAA?

Thanks for the info, David.

I suspect that the MAA BattleDress book is OOP. Thanks for the great links - and the warning, unfortunately now I have to have them... :-)

I am also thinking of getting "Khaki Drill and Jungle Green: British Army Uniforms in the Mediterranean & Asia 1939-1945" by Martin Brayley and Richard Ingrams. Apparently it is brilliant.

To further complicate the issue , take a look at the left hand trail of the gun, adjacent to the standing loader.
There's a small 'stripe' of a darker colour, which suggests to me that the weapon is camouflaged - this would probably be applied to the trails, barrel and external face of the gun shield.
As to the colours...?
Light mud and dark brown/black/bronze green..?
Not much help I know but a camouflage scheme fits with the scenario (looks like Italy 1943) and would look rather snazzy to boot...

acav out

Acav,

Check out Drader's links, really interesting.

To paraphrase in order to briefly answer your question:

"In Italy vehicles used home schemes as outlined above, but others showed the remnants of their final North African schemes or the schemes introduced by General Order in April 1943, which used bold patterns of black, or SCC7, a dark olive green, over a base of SCC.5 "Light Mud". "

and

"April 1943 - GO 1650 is cancelled and new designs issued by G(Cam.) with new colours for use in Sicily and Italy. Base tone is SCC5 "Light Mud" with Black or SCC7 in bold patterns for camouflage. Lend Lease vehicles used Light Mud over No.9 Olive Drab as an alternative. By late 1943 European base tones predominated. "

and (finally)

"SCC5 a.ka. "Light Mud"
In use: 1943-44 in Sicily and Italy as base tone/light tone in disruptive patterns. Seldom if ever on its own.

SCC7 a.ka. "Dark Olive Green" "Dark Green"
In use: 1941-44 on tilts, but especially as dark tone in Middle east and Italy over Light Stone 61, SCC11b and SCC51"

Mike Starmer's research is also available in these self-published booklets, I've got the Alamein and after volume so far. When I bought it earlier this year, he was about to reprint the other two.

http://www.matadormodels.co.uk/tank_museum/xcamo_starmer.htm