Info needed: correct colours for WWII Aust vehicles

[Mike K]

I painted my C8 with Wattyl flat Olive Drab enamel . Wattyl had the Defence Dept. contract for some years . In the 90's You could buy it in 4 litre cans from Wattyl outlets, they never asked what I was using it for . Out of the can, it's the colour the Army Land Rovers were finished in at that time. It's about as flat as you can get paint , it has a heavy flattening agent suspended in the paint that tends to sink to the bottom of the can over time . The cans were plain , without any paper labels but instead, a stencilled description on the can.

I wasn't happy with the colour out of the can , I got hold of some tinting agents and I tried to get it to a more appropriate shade . I was never happy with the result but went ahead anyway.

The Wattyl product has proven to be long lasting , it does mark easily but you have to expect that with flat paint . I am pretty sure it isn't available these days.

BTW it is easy to mix up various shades of Olive green from a yellow base , you use Black and Red as tinters .

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Mike,

Ah yes! Remember well a few trips to the Wattyl trade depot at Moorrabbin 20 years ago to get the current ADF paint. The Internet was new then so not a lot of info out there. Even if it was, monochrome screens and dot matrix printers would not be of much use. If it was Army Green/Olive Drab/Khaki that was good enough to put on anything other than a Jeep in light of any other information.
Most military vehicle restorers only restored Jeeps then of which their correct colour paint was easier to obtain. I think even the VMVC was just called the Victorian Jeep Club originally.
No one restored CMP trucks and on more than one occasion back then I was told I must be crazy to be doing it. I too, was never really happy with the colour but it sufficed until some better information came to hand.

Anyway 20 years on I bit the bullet and have started the repaint job beginning with the spare set of wheels. They have already had the POR15 treatment inside after a few hours on the flap disks smoothing out as much pitting as possible.

Note the difference in the colours between the current ADF Olive Drab and the recently acquired KG3 on both the wheels and the test patches.

[Jacques Reed]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

I painted my C8 with Wattyl flat Olive Drab enamel . Wattyl had the Defence Dept. contract for some years . In the 90's You could buy it in 4 litre cans from Wattyl outlets,
The Wattyl product has proven to be long lasting , it does mark easily but you have to expect that with flat paint . I am pretty sure it isn't available these days.

Hi Mike,

I bought a 20 litre can of it in Jan 2010 from the Wattyl Trade Depot at Chelsea Heights Vic. Note it was semi-gloss however.
They told me it was no longer available in 4 litre cans.
I won't need it now but if anyone is repainting an Australian Leopard Tank and needs 20 litres that's the place to go.
Handy hint too: Decant it into 4 litre cans after purchase. When I opened it a couple of months after the previous use there was a one inch thick skin on it despite a good seal and having a clamping band on the lid. Never saw paint develop such a thick skin so quickly.

Cheers,

[Mike K]

Hi Jacques

Yes I used to get the lusterless olive drab enamel from the Moorabbin depot. I recall , back in the 1990's driving all the way there, only to find it closed, the staff were on strike I've never seen the semi gloss version that you have .

Where did you get your KG3 mixed ?