I'm building a dio using various kits all representing kiwi vehicles. I'm not too sure what the correct colours are especially the tanks.

Hi Alan,
Good to have you here. To narrow things down a bit what Period(s) would like to represent?

Hi Alan,
a great question for which there is no straight answer
At the start of New Zealand's involvement in the campaign, late 1943, officially the scheme was:
SCC5 "Light Mud" (a dirty grey sand) base colour, with either Back or SCC7 "Dark Olive Green" (a dull olive green) in bold patterns for camouflage.
Most sources point to black (SCC14 "Blue-Black" "Charcoal") being used. But that said, the only colour illustrations made at the time that I have come across, the paintings of New Zealand War Artist Peter McIntrye show the camouflage colour a dark brown (SCC2 "Service Colour" a rich dark brown) and this ties in with the scheme used prior to the invasion of Sicily.

Around mid 1944, after Cassino, most tanks appear to have been repainted (or replaced) in a single colour. In theory this was SCC15 "Olive Drab" (not US No9 Olive Drab I think that more has been written on this colour than any other, including those used by the dark side ) Lend-Lease vehicles would have been in US No9 Olive Drab, the only LL tanks that I can think of would be the Sherman IBs (105mm) and the T2 Recovery Vehicle (we acquired ).

I hope this is of some help and has not put you off modelling NZ armour for life :-)
The main thing is that it looks right to you and that you are happy with the results and to **** with the critics

cheers
David

thanks for the replies guys. Why is it never simple with army colours?... In the RNZN we just had Waikato Grey..

Hi Alan,

In basic terms, here are some colours to use that look perfectly okay;
Early Italian campaign armour = Tamiya XF55 (Deck Tan) and XF69 (NATO Black)

Late Italian campaign = XF58 (Olive Green)

All liberally covered in dust or dried and wet mud (depending on the weather of course).

Here's Nick Moore's prize winning Kiwis at Cassino vignette from Scale Models Expo 2005 to tempt you into the early scheme.

Cheers
Richard

Hi Alan,
Are you going to be building a Dragon Sherman III? https://armorama.kitmaker.net/review/2167