hey all, i am doing an m20, and i am up to painting it, i was just wondering becuase i am going to use the salt paint chipping tecknique, what color do you use as the base coat for the us armour the goes underneat the olive drab paint???

thnx

matt

I'm not an expert but I think the undercoat was olive drab.

what kind of salt chipping are you planning on doing.. just a bit or a overall full blown chip effect?

the primer used on US WW2 vehicles was grey. the same grey primer you see being used today by panelbeaters.

just a question..how suceptable was U.S. Olive drab to paint chipping.. I know there are lots of pics of German AFV's esp in the dessert that had chipped and peeled paint but I don't think i've seen any pictures of U.S. AFV's with a similar problem.. or is it just that the U.S. vehicles kept getting re-painted faster....

US Service vehicles have historically been well maintained. During WW II, Shermans went to maintenance at the 100-hour operation cycle. Between these service checks, the crew kept them clean often - and when damaged, the vehicles were returned behind the lines for repairs or replacement if too heavily damaged. They became spares for newer vehicles. US vehicles, when repaired and patched - were not stripped of their paint job(s). The paint buildup got thick sometimes, lessening the "chipping" wear circumstance.

Don't go overboard "chipping" US vehicles...

Gunnie

thnx guys, now that i know the undercoat was grey, i need to know what kind of grey, and most importantly what humbrol greay is it?


matt

humbrol #147 matt light grey would be fairly close

Hi Matt:
Like another poster said, the "paint chip" phenomenon in model finishing doesn't go well with OD painted US equipment, historically. (Frankly, I'm not sure it goes so great w/dunkegelb German equipment either but that's another thread!)

US OD paint had great adhesion properties, I'm told. If there was a scratch, it'd go down to the bare metal. For weathering purposes, have a read on this great article:
http://www.missing-lynx.com/rare_world/rw03.htm

Showing wear through layers of accumulated dust looks more realistic to me than tons of dark brown scratches and splotches.

Ok now I have a ?. when did the use of Zinc Chromate primer come into use? (Yellow)

hmmm Zinc Chromate

the only time i've ever needed that color was for the some interier parts of WWII aircraft.. think they used a yellow and a green zinc chromate paint there.

I think it was used there because it was lighter than a lead based paint but I am only guessing...

Ok I spoke to my Dad, he servered in the US army at Fort Knox in teh 1950's. He remembers yellow showing through along the lower edges of the doorways to his duce-n-ahalf. Wouldn't this be Zinc Chromate primer?

yes that may be zinc chromate but it would have only come in about 1950. All the WW2 CCKW duce & a half trucks had grey primer.