Nice work on the paint layers Gina, your photo displays the full paint history well, with Khaki Green identifiable as post September '42. Photos like this are an important part of vehicle provenance and widely underused by restorers IMO. It's possible to achieve more clarity but it requires many hours of fiddly rubbing work to isolate the colours completely. I find the only way this can be done is by using folded pointy corners of wet and dry to achieve the necessary precision, which is even more difficult with highly uneven paint coats like the Light Stone on your Stuart. I did a lot of that kind of delicate work on the front shell and it reminded me of archaeologists using tiny paintbrushes to reveal fossils!
Such photos also provide important evidence of general practice at the time, like the US Lend Lease factors you identify Gina. As such they can challenge our assumptions and go a long way to explaining wartime photographs as you say. I wonder if the Stuarts seen below were rushed into service in British green. It's possible they're seen after rainfall but even so they look way too dark for pre '42 Khaki Green.
In due course I'll resume work on the FGT door to expose the required colours for matching. Unfortunately I got a bit carried away last time and removed too much paintwork, however there's plenty left to work with I believe. Ideally each coat needs to be exposed individually to provide maximum area for colour matching, and sealed with clear satin for colour rendition. Colours worth matching on this panel are pre '42 Khaki Green, Light Stone, and subject to confirmation post '42 Khaki Green and Light Earth. As such it will be a lengthy exercise but it's the only way to replicate these colours with full confidence. Hopefully it will be of use to others and can lead to standard formulations being established, which if confirmed by reference to WWII paint chips would be fully authoritative. This work has been done for modellers but does not translate usefully to volume supply. Ideally we can reach a point where WWII paint can simply be ordered, with paint matching a thing of the past. Hopefully my own efforts will be a step in that direction, to which end I'd welcome any suggestions/advice concerning suitable paint types and suppliers. I gather the general preference is for enamel rather than acrylic. Protec is one name that springs to mind and may be ideal for this project, given their association with current military paint supply.
