Interior Details

[Extra Crispy]

Where could I find details on how to apint the interiors of open topped vehicles? I have a few books but they limit themselves to external camo. Would interiors be the same base color? Would htey have camo? I need to see colors for seats, shells, etc.

I'm working on Germans and Russians for 1943...

[Thomaso827]

Many Squadron publications have interior shots (black and white but usually some good shots in pubs), and you may find some online at the museums like the Patton Museum at Ft Knox, KY. They (Ft Knox) have a cutaway on part of the M-26 if I remember correctly, and the Autoteknik museum in Sinsheim, Germany, has a Tiger 1 with a cutaway, but both have lots of different tanks present and may have interior shots on their websites. Most countries chose white or light green to avoid problems with clostrophobia, but inside hatch covers differ sometimes, using the external base color. Open topped vehicles also seem to differ a bit, but most Germans I have seen have the external base color repeated in the fighting compartment. I've seen things like US Tank Destroyers done with both OD Green turret interior and white turret interior. Seats in Germans were usually black or brown leather, while in US they were usually OD Green canvas. Not sure on the Russian seats, but the driver's seat on a T-55 I saw with OPFOR had no cushion on it, so it was interior color of white. The shelves are also usually interior color. I think early on many open topped vehicles stuck with the white or light green, but changed when they lost air superiority. The US stuff seems to have been produced at the factory with white interiors, but often repainted in the field.

[mlcolbert]

FWIW we're off to Volgograd in December and I plan on taking a few thousand exposures of anything military. Vehicles there should be, especially like the open air museum in Kiev, so I'll put this on the list of things to post whilst I'm there. If you still need some internal shots by then let me know.


michael

[tstockton]

Gentlemen,

An interesting thread... I had never considered painting the interior of an open-topped vehicle anything other than the usual exterior color. I'd always assumed that anything visible to an observer outside the vehicle would be painted in an "exterior color".

Something new to think about!

Regards,
Tom Stockton

[Thomaso827]

Part of the issue is, what were they painted at the factory, and what did the recipients do in the field. Many of these were built on tank production hulls, and were probably painted white at the factory, then repainted in the field where the crews had a more realistic idea of their use. I can refer to an instruction sheet for a Bandai 1/48 model Wespe, which showed a white interior, while a Tamiya 1/35th Marder II has a 'dark yellow' (same as outside hull) color, while the driver compartment was still white. Other issues come up besides camo, one being visibility of equipment to the crew using it. The original white painted insides have lots of decals marking where the factory intended accessories to be stowed, and as the interior got repainted, these decals either got painted around or over. Looking at the real things, look at the decals if present and see what is behind them. Many museum repaints were done to keep the vehicle from deteriorating more rapidly, and were done when the restoration crews werent always certain of the correct colors, so what is visible may not have been correct originally, but the curators out there today seem to be more accurate to the originals, as much as possible, anyway. I spent way to much of my free time while stationed at Ft Knox visiting the museum there, and as much time as possible while in Germany visiting the Autoteknik museum, but by no means am I an expert. I'm sure others may have other experiences or other books to point out.

[Pitfall]

I was thinking the same thing when I was painting the open-topped Semovente 47's. I heard that most were painted the standard Italian grey-green and were repainted in North Africa as needed. So, I just left the interior bare grey primer.

[Sierra 19]

Most open-top vehicles in WW2 were painted the same as the exterior color. This helped them stay a little more camoflagued, more from the air than the ground. Think about it from a few thousand feet in the air, a nice white gun compartment will stick out like a sore thumb, then it's bye-bye open topped vehicle!

[Thunder]

Many thanks to CGE for the tour.

MK1 inside a Panther turret.



Me inside a T-??

[Thomaso827]

Ah, there's the M-8 with open top! Forgot all about that one. Great looking museum. Where was that? Havent seen an M-60A2 in ages. I'm here in Dayton, OH, where the US Air Force Museum calls home - not much armor around here, though. They do have the Cadillac Gage armored car, which was also used in Nam for airfield security. This one is the open top with MG mounts on front and rear of the open fighting compartment. Not supposed to climb on it, but next time I'm in there, I may take a look when nobody is watching....

[Thunder]

Near San Jose in California. Its Jaques Littlefield's private collection. Many more pics on my website in the Recon section.