Tank Camouflage

[Terry Carter]

I am reading 'Tank Warfare' by F Mitchell M.C. He has this to say regarding the first time tanks were used in battle on 15 September, 1916:-

The spirit of our own troops, on the other hand, rose tremendously. At first, when they saw these slug-like machines slowly crawling over no-man's-land, they were filled with surprise. They had expected to see something startling, but these unwieldy monsters, their sides painted all the colours of the rainbow,

I thought the original tanks were painted a mottled colour comprising of brown, green and cream. It is hard to visualise them painted "all the colours of the rainbow." Has any body actually come across how the originals were painted. Did any battlefield artist sketch one for posterity?

I have a plastic model made up ready to paint. I would love to do a 'rainbow' scheme if anyone can help.

Thanks

Terry

[iain mchenry]

Hi Terry,

I think Mitchell in his book was using "all the colours of the rainbow" with a hint of sracasm. A local Belgian friend has a book on WW1 tanks he uses for modelling. Some of the coloured drawings in the book show British Armour decorated in the mottled camouflage manor with lots of different colours. I think this is what he meant by "all the colours of the rainbow".

Just finished reading the book myself. thoroughly enjoyed it.

Best regards

Iain

[Geoff Parker]

Terry

Try this URL although no examples I'm afraid,

http:\\www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Base/1545/WWI/Main/Misc/TankColours-1.htm

Will have a look at home tonight and see what I've got. What Mark of tank

are you painting, if its a Mark IV or later they are normally just one shade

which seems to vary between khaki-green to a chocolate brown colour.

Geoff

[Geoff Parker]

Terry

Had a look through what books I have on the subject.

September 1916 - those tanks that were camouflaged, a combination of

standard British Army colours were used; Brown, Green, Ochre and Grey.

Some where painted in "crazy paving" type finish with the different colours

being separated by a line of black paint. Others where painted in a mottle

finish and giving a blurred effect. A good example is the Mark II female at

Bovington.

From 1917 onwards the camouflage idea seems to have been dropped and

most tanks were painted with one overall colour which varies from green

to brown. I was going to scan some photos of the MkIV in Brussels but

unfortunately not a good example as the flash has bleached the colour making

it appear lighter than it is.

If you model is a MKI and you want to represent Flers then camouflage is a

good choice, if a MKIV then a single colour would be right.

Hope this of use

Geoff

[David Seymour]

Terry,

Perhaps the Tank Museum at Bovington could help. www.tankmuseum.org

Best wishes,

David

[Guest Military Kit]

Found some interesting reading (although no illustrations unfortunately on tank colours) here: http://webspace.webring.com/people/nu/um_103/WWI/Main/Misc/TankColours-1.htm

Early camouflage patterns would have involved mud, dust, dirt, local foliage rather than a particular paint finish so i would have thought you could design your own camouflage pattern for model tanks from the period.

www.military-kit.co.uk

[centurion]

May help http://landships.activeboard.com/forum.spark?aBID=63528&p=3&topicID=7239978

[MikB]

If you've been wearing a uniform the colour of mud, and looking at mud, grey skies and dirty smoke to the horizon all around for months on end, I daresay the WW1 camo schemes they show at the tank museum and elsewhere, along with the red and white stripes I seem to remember seeing on some tanks, might look pretty startling...

Regards,

MikB

[centurion]

If you've been wearing a uniform the colour of mud, and looking at mud, grey skies and dirty smoke to the horizon all around for months on end, I daresay the WW1 camo schemes they show at the tank museum and elsewhere, along with the red and white stripes I seem to remember seeing on some tanks, might look pretty startling...

Regards,

MikB

Except every three weeks or so you'd have been rotated to the back of the lines with trees vegetation, colour etc. Except in the middle of a major battle no mans land had vegetation and, in the right season even wild flowers. The sky was also blue at times. It wasn't always mud.

The red and white recognition stripes came right towards the end of the war long after tanks ceased to have anything other than a single colour

[MikB]

Except every three weeks or so you'd have been rotated to the back of the lines with trees vegetation, colour etc. Except in the middle of a major battle no mans land had vegetation and, in the right season even wild flowers. The sky was also blue at times. It wasn't always mud.

The red and white recognition stripes came right towards the end of the war long after tanks ceased to have anything other than a single colour

It must have been quite a lot of the time in the Somme offensive, and I doubt the regular rotation of troops would have worked the way it was supposed to during those chaotic and bloody months. Certainly most of the literature and a lot of the art is about mud. I still think the variegated colour scheme would be more spectacular than camouflaging in its effect in that environment.

Take your point about the stripes, though - I had a suspicion I'd maybe only seen them on Mk.IVs and Vs.

Regards,

MikB

[centurion]

The colours of WW1 albeit from a German viewpoint

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,589791,00.html

[calibre792x57.y]

I refer to Osprey's British Mark I tank 1916. Lt Col. Solomon V. Solomon, R.E. was given the task of devising a colour scheme for tanks that would blend with their background. The colours he chose were green, brown, yellow and pink applied in an 'impressionist' style. He was believed to have applied this scheme to Mother whilst at Thetford and the training crews were ordered to copy this as best as they could. On arrival in France the crews were ordered to repaint the tanks in more sober colours. The result was by no means uniform, but in general used patches of green brown and ochre outlined in black which was somewhat like the pattern used on German helmets under the order of July 1918. There after the action of the tracks picked up the mud of the Somme battle field and carried it up over the tank from where it was deposited on the roof of the sponsons and ran down over the sides. Subsequently the tanks appear to have been painted in Naval Grey or Service Brown. Later models were painted as shown on the Mk V at Bovington which is said to be the original colour SW

[Robert Dunlop]

The Solomon camoflague scheme made use of an interesting trick played by the brain. A multi-colour scheme tends to resolve to the colour that is most prominent in the background. Thus, a predominantly brown background will result in the viewer perceiving the brown colours of the scheme, thereby enabling the camoflagued object to blend in. The advantage of a multi-colour scheme is that the object will blend with many different backgrounds.

Robert