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Old 08-08-07, 19:57
Mad_Dan_Eccles Mad_Dan_Eccles is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Ramona CA
Posts: 11
Default Re: Desert colours

Quote:
Originally posted by Mike Starmer
I would be most interested to know where you learned that it is a mixture of Light Stone and Red Oxide?
Mike

Thanks for your resonse.

The info on Desert Pink came from an man ( now deceased) that I used to work with back in the 70s who had had to paint equipment when serving in the desert; according to him when they didn't have a precise shade premixed they basically threw stuff into a drum until it looked about right.

He didn't talk readily but once you got him talking (it helped to buy him a couple of jugs of beer) he was a fascinating source of information and I wish I had taken closer notes or recorded our conversations.

Beside mentioning the red primer (red lead??) admixture to produce desert pink he also said that in some cases they would try to "extend" a colour that was in short supply by mixing in other colours that they did have to hand from local sources.

When a painter finished for the day any left over paint went back into the drum so the shade was never quite as consistent as some of the more peripheral advocates of precise matches to modern colour chips would like to think.

His comment was that at the repair depots they didn't have always the time or resources to get fussy about the exact colours; close enough was usually good enough - the priority for much of his time there was getting the vehicles back out into service, not coach painting

Aidrian
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