Comet, Centurion and Chieftan Colours - Bronze Green

[dabhand]

Post WWIIi, British AFVs appeared in overall 'bronze green.  Comets and Centurions appeared in this colour, but what about Chieftans?  when was the colour abandoned - I assume it was when the black/green camoflague was introduced for '1st line' vehicles ie ones expected to come into contact with the enemy. 

 

This raises the next question - when the black/green was adopted, did it apply to all vehicles or simply those expected to come into contact with an enemy?  

 

Finally, what were the post bronze green colours and what would be a useful match using Humbrol paints?

 

But what were the general dates for this changeover ie from Bronze Green to Green/Black?

[peebeep]

I don’t have a link to hand, but you’ll find answers to these question in Mike Starmer’s article on the MAFVA web pages.

[jopres57]

Chieftains entered service in the sixties so would almost certainly be painted gloss deep bronze green to start with. I saw an interesting programme about the British Army of the Rhine on telly a while ago, part of it being a clip  of the 17/21 lancers on exercise in 1968. The film was black and white but the Chieftain tanks are clearly painted in one overall colour with a distinctive shine, I'm sure that this will be gloss bronze green. I'm also fairly certain that Chieftains painted in bronze green were still being used in training units until at least the late seventies, although there is a chance that my memory is playing tricks.

I wrote a bit more about this on the 'British Army Colours' sub-forum below.

[Dad Paul B]

There is a post on this subject and I think the British vehicles came out of the factory in Deep Bronze Green (there was a Humbrol enamel for this - I use Vallejo bronze green for UK aircraft until the 1970s when a more olive shade was used) and the black was applied at the unit level in West Germany - I think from the 1980s - leading to a lot of local variation.