BRITISH ARMY COLORS AFRICA LATE 1942-43

The light stone of the Western Desert

British vehicles in North Africa went through several finishes over two years. The one that lasted longest was a light stone shade, over which a pinkish desert tone better matching the color of the soil in Tunisia began to be laid from the end of 1942. To that were added dark disruptive areas and sharp shadow lines. The four bottles in the package allow a vehicle to be built in any of these forms.

Light Stone number sixty-one serves as the base area, desert pink as the later variant or as the second field of the pattern, dark olive forms the disruptive patches, and black is used for the narrow shadow stripes with which British vehicles imitated the effect of a cast shadow. That particular element changes the shape of a vehicle on a model surprisingly much.

How to proceed

The binder is acrylic thinned with water, and the bottle holds 17 ml. Light desert shades need a light base, otherwise they use up needlessly many coats. The disruptive areas are laid on freehand, whereas the shadow stripes are better led with masking putty, because they should have a readable edge.

Once the finish is complete, dusting shifts the areas toward a lighter tone, which on desert machines matches reality after a few days of service. The set covers tracked and wheeled vehicles, armored cars and artillery tractors in the usual modeling scales.

Anyone building a machine from the start of the campaign will get by with two bottles and keep the rest for a later vehicle. The contents of the package are put together to cover several forms of the same type.