SEARCH FINESCALE.COM

Enter keywords or a search phrase below:

Undercoat colour on a Firefly

497 views
5 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    December 2003
  • From: Montreal
Undercoat colour on a Firefly
Posted by buff on Thursday, July 29, 2004 2:10 PM
What colour would the undercoat have been on a Firefly? I want to put some dings and scratches on my Firefly Vc, and I figure the undercoat should show through. Thanks for the help.

On the bench: 1/32 Spit IXc

  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, July 29, 2004 2:30 PM
We have a Sherman tank in the park here in London Ont. Although it is not a Sherman Vc Firefly, it should be the same. I scratched the paint on the undersurface of this tank, and it was green, right down to the bare metal. Try Hunnicut's book on the Sherman tank, as there are a number of pict's that might help here. This Sherman, in London Ontario, was from the !st Hussars, and was the only Sherman (early M4A1) with direct vision sights for driver/assistant driver, to survive the war intact from that outfit. Inside the tank, the surfaces are white, with red-oxide type primer in spots, but that is inside the beast. (One of the vision block covers is missing, and you can see inside the turrent and one sponson {right side})
This tank has been painted over and over again. Unfortunately, if the City of London doesn't look after it more, it will fall apart. It has a stress crack across the blocked off antenna port next to the hull .50 Cal. It is interesting to note that these British/Canadian tanks have a different colour than the American ones. More darker Olive green or Kakki Colour. I had to mix my paint in this mix;

7:1:1 with the 7 parts being Humbrol green (# 116) that came closest to British green,
one part Brown (matt dark) and one part White (for scale effect)

(To see a discussion about scale effect, read Tony Greenlands book on Panzer Modeling to see what I mean here ....)

This gives an approximate colour to the tank in the Park, and BTW the 1st Hussars Rgmt, looks after the painting of it each year, but the tank is City owned.

I have many hundreds of photo's of this tank, in Colour, and I am trying to figure out how to get them on the Net, for all to see.

Hope this helps some ....

Rob Savage
  • Member since
    December 2003
  • From: Montreal
Posted by buff on Thursday, July 29, 2004 8:09 PM
Thanks for the help Rob. The green you mixed, is it the undercoat or what we see?

On the bench: 1/32 Spit IXc

  • Member since
    January 2003
  • From: Utah - USA
Posted by wipw on Friday, July 30, 2004 11:08 AM
Humbrol has a beautiful green that works for the Firefly. It's bronze green and I think it's #75. I really liked the color and, according to my LHS, is dead on for Brit armor.
Bill ========================================================== DML M4A2 Red Army ========================================================== ========================================================== -- There is a fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness". (Author unknown)
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 30, 2004 1:28 PM
To "buff' , No it is the top coat. Again, I am not 100% sure, but I would think that the paint was undercoated. As I can see the red-oxide primer from the vision block hole in the turret of the Sherman, I would think that this was used.

Also I have found that all of the original paint, on this Sherman, is SEMI-GLOSS. Flat paint provides no protection from the elements at all. This is important to understand that the paint on the WWII vehicles was semi-gloss, from what I have seen or examined. But I am not an expert here, just going by what I have seen.

I have painted my Sherman's Humbrol #116, with the formula above, with flat paint. I tried an experiment with one Sherman, (the last one I did) and I mixed a few drops of gloss (from Humbrol) and it worked resonably well. But just one or two drops, no more.

This subject needs a carefull study, so how about those who know more about Shemans to help here?

Rob Savage
  • Member since
    December 2003
  • From: Montreal
Posted by buff on Friday, July 30, 2004 4:43 PM
Rob and Bill, thanks for the help. I appreciate your input.

On the bench: 1/32 Spit IXc

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

SEARCH FORUMS
FREE NEWSLETTER
By signing up you may also receive reader surveys and occasional special offers. We do not sell, rent or trade our email lists. View our Privacy Policy.