[Big D]

Gina – it certainly has got me thinking.

I’ve been playing around with this some more with 600 grit wet and dry. I didn’t have anything finer here so thought I would try that.

These photos were taken of the surface I’ve been working on, with the surface wet. I’ve taken some close-up photos as well and apologies; some aren’t that great. The armour feels reasonably smooth but the paint itself (all coats) strikes me as really thin.

The two areas I am examining are on the panel between the rear wheel and the commander’s door. According to every period scout car photo I’ve seen the two areas should show the contrast in the disruptive pattern. That is, one spot should be the khaki green, the other the light earth/light stone.

To add to my confusion however, I am seeing this reddish brown paint in both areas. I would describe as almost being clay-like in colour.

It doesn’t look like a primer to my untrained eye but I could be wrong. There are some spots where you can clearly see the darker green (post war?) so I am wondering if a lot of that was stripped back at some stage judging by the pieces that are left. That might explain why the paint appears very thin.

You can also see some darker areas again which are the rust spots.

I will persevere with this and I probably need to continue over a wider area to see if I can identify the places in the disruptive pattern (if there is one there) where the different colours meet.

At this stage I have a few theories:

* The reddish brown paint I am seeing is the original primer (bugger!)
* The reddish brown paint I am seeing is the light earth (Could it be? It doesn’t look like the light stone to me) and the vehicle was painted with that colour first and then the khaki green went over the top
* I have completely got the pattern wrong from photos and will need to sample another area