BRITISH CAUNTER SCHEME 1940-41

An angular pattern from the Western Desert

British units in North Africa received at the turn of 1940 a peculiar camouflage that appeared nowhere else: sharply broken fields of three colors, drawn across the hull and the turret so as to break the shape of a vehicle into flat areas and to confuse the judging of distance. The pattern carries the name of the brigade commander who pushed it through with his armored unit, and it was used roughly until the end of 1941, before simpler desert finishes replaced it. That is precisely why it is rewarding for modelers who want a vehicle recognizable at first glance.

Four tones in the package

• A silvery gray, the lightest and most striking field of the pattern
• A slate as the dark component with a blue green cast
• A light stone, the sand base of the whole vehicle
• A Portland stone, a markedly cooler sand tone

How to apply the pattern

The procedure has a logic of its own: first the whole vehicle gets a sand base, then the broken boundaries are marked out with a pencil or masking tape and only into them are the remaining fields laid. The transitions are not blended; this pattern is deliberately hard and sharp edges belong to it. Period photographs show that the appearance differed from one example to the next, so exact copying of one pattern is not necessary; it is more important to keep the broken rhythm and the width of the bands.

Where the palette finds further use

The shades are not tied to armored vehicles alone. The same three colors appeared on trucks, armored cars and the artillery tractors of the same campaign, and the cooler sand tone will serve well on jerrycans, crates and tarpaulins. The paints are intended for a brush as well as a gun; the angular boundaries come out most cleanly, however, when tape is used and the paint is applied in weak layers, so that it does not run under the edge.