Early WW2 French Army paint set

French tanks in three layers of time

Few armies laid camouflage down in as much detail as the French. The provisional instruction of March 1937 divided the shades into groups according to what they were to stand for on a vehicle: the sky, the ground and shadow. The eight in this set, however, go further back into the past and forward as far as the last prewar finish of 1938, so from one package you can paint vehicles from the Renault FT to the machines that fought in 1940.

What is inside

• Vert Olive, the uniform finish of vehicles from 1918 to the early 1930s, apart from the Renault FT machines
• Gris Bleu Clair and Gris Clair Neutre, the pair of shades of the sky group to the instruction of March 1937
• ocher and beige, the shades of the ground group, previously used on the Renault FT, B1 bis, D1, D2 and FCM 2C
• umber brown, in camouflages from 1917 through the 1937 scheme to the last prewar finish
• Gris Vert, from August 1938 together with the umber in the last prewar camouflage
• Vert Fonce, a shade of the shadow group to the instruction of March 1937

From the Renault FT to 1940

The shades given were carried by the D2, R35, S35, FCM 36, AMR 33, AMR 35, H35, H39, B1 bis and D1 machines and by the veteran Renault FT. The patterns were usually drawn freehand, so they differed from one machine to another; with French vehicles it pays to find a photograph of the particular machine and to follow it.

For May and June 1940 there is one more peculiarity. A number of vehicles went into action still in the finish of the older regulation, because the units had not managed to repaint them, so machines in two different generations of camouflage stood side by side on the same road.