I am currently building a Hobbycraft M1A1. I want to use a paint job using some selected area peeled paint. What color does the prototype unit use for it's primer coat? I have already primed the plastic using grey sandable primer.

Howdy Thom. We need a member named Crockett to come up on the net to answer this one. He worked at the Lima, OH production facility. Out here.

You know, although I have talked for 8 years, I've always been curious about the primer. Generally, I've seen the paint scraped to metal, rather than seeing something scraped down to a primer layer of paint.

Built-up paint tends to peel/crack after a while, showing a layer underneath.

I'd be very interested in seeing a picture of a primed tank, before it receives it's coat of CARC paint.

Jed

Howdy Jared. I too have seen the paint chipped down to the metal but cannot recall what color the primer is. If Crockett does not chime in I will get a hold of a GD guy at Annistion I know. Out here.

Hi guys,

The Primer was red oxide, but with a strange "rubbery" texture to it, kind of hard to explain. The color was a little brighter than Tamiya Hull red acrylic.

Hull and turret welded subassemblies were sent to the paint room after machining (and for the turrets, before the armor room). They received the base coat of red oxide primer, then a coat of Army green (for lack of a better term). The hull interior and turret interior were primed, baked and coated with gloss white. A temporary factory number was stenciled on the hull sponsons and the turret glacis. Then these hulls and turrets were delivered to thier respective assembly lines to be completed.

Hope this answers the question.

Cheers,
Steve

Good question Thom.

And I dont know the answer to this, but if I were to guess, I would guess grey. It would make sense that whatever the industry is using @ the time that the same would go for the military.

I would think It would be up to the automotive paint manufacturers to supply the paint/primer for the military. I dont know, just a hunch.

Steve

Opppps! A little late on my answer.

I guess Crockett is in the know. That would have been my second guess, Oxide Red, that color will look alot nicer under the final color when exposed to chipping.

I like

Crockett, "Tanks" for the straight scoop and the paint /assembly sequence. Out here.

I still doubt it chips...

As I've seen, the bond between the primer and the first coat of paint has got to be something excellent, as I've seen some abused tanks, but never one that chips down to primer. Even inside the turret, where the primer is painted over by white, wears through before it shows a primer color, and the same for some high-wear tanks I've tinkered with (one in the Patton Museum motorpool like that). I'll try and get some photographic evidence.

Jed

Thanks everyone for the answers. I was down to my local NG Armory today and I was talking with a Sgt down there that used to be a M1A1 Tank Crewman. He told me that he has never seen one of those tanks with chipped paint anywhere unless it actually ran into something like a wall etc. He said that the paint is generally tough enough to stand normal foot traffic wear with our wearing through to the primer.

That made the decision for me not to attempt a peeled paint job on this model. I wil just try to show the normal wear and tear.

thanks

Thom

As a slight continuation of the topic...

You can chip the paint, but not necessarily down the primer. Many tanks are repainted at local paint booths, which for the greatest success requires the vehicle to be completely clean. Not saying soldiers aren't lazy, but at times, they don't get that layer of dirt that embeds itself into the CARC paint, so the next layer of paint sometimes will chip up, but only down to that under-lying layer. Best seen in a Woodlands colored tank painted over with desert tan, but it really depends on the life of the tank.

Jed Sargent

Iv'e seen the primer and it is red oxide.

I completely agree with the above opinion. During 2 years of operational prototype testing, I never saw any "chipping", unless we ran into something, which would take paint and primer down to the bare metal. Below is a shot of me in the cupola of PV 5, at this time, the tank had over 9,000 k's on the odometer, the paint is faded, but no chips,



Steve

to Steve aka Crockett.

I find your signature line has a ironic twist to it.

Last week, a trash company here in Grand Rapids, MI, emptied out a garage at a local funeral home that used the building to house medical waste.

It turns out thet one of the boxes they removed contained a body that was awaiting disposal instructions of the dead man's family.

They hauled it to a local landfill where it was buried under about 100 truck fulls of garbage befor the error was discovered.

The family asked that the search for the body be called off out of concern that the searchers would come to harm searching through all that garbage.

So there he will stay according to the MIchigan Department of Enviromental Quality which has jurisdiction in such matters.

So yes, you certainly could end up in a land fill.

Thom