I'm new to WWI armor and this website. I just got the meng Mk V and the instructions call out for a white interior color. is that correct? I've seen a Russian site about refurb a Mk V and the interior color on their example looks to be silver.
In my opionion it was white with the wood floor of the same paint of exterior or natural wood.
The silver color you refear was the result of sand blasting before painting.
I also refeared to these picture. In my opinion these tank were sand blasted before starting refurbishment and this is correct if you want a long durable restoration and most of all repair all cracked plate. I such old vehicle cracks are caused by the thermal surface treatment to improve protection after that you obtain a plate with different strenght from the outer surface to the inner. This cause lot of tension on the metal and after long time a crack may start from the weakest point. When the crack starts it is usually impossible to stop until it reachs the other side of the plate. A good way to stop cracks is to drill a hole on the end and then fill hole and crack with electric welding. To do this a sand blasted surface is the optimum because you can easier find the end of the crack. Not doing this, the crack will restart on the other side of the hole. It is a long time consuming work and not an easy task so you need lot of patience and a skilled welder.
I think page 7 and 8 picture were taken after sand blasting but before starting repairing work, see how many broken plates were. See on page 8 what seems a remain of the old green paint on the bootom plate of sponson. These tanks had really bad broken armour plate and I think most of the demage was cause either by some WWII demage and by the change of temperature between russian winter and summer season. In this condition sand blasting is really an hard work because, due the heavy plate demage, you can't disassembling the tank.
Look in this video how to demount a female sponson
https://www.youtube.com/embed/E3WeDtoyyOw
Note in pages 10 (interior horn) and 13 what seems to be remain of the older interior paint. It appears to be white or at least a creamish paint but this last color may be a result of decades of wheatering or even a wromg color balance on the camera.
-- Edited by Pierantonio on Saturday 21st of November 2015 12:13:19 PM
Have a look at the interior photos of Mark IV 4093 'Lodestar III' in the museum in Brussels, and 4643 'Grit' in Canberra, in the book 'Beute-Tanks Vol. 2' by Rainer Strasheim, published by Tankograd. Both are painted plain white. It looks as if Lodestar has been repainted internally (which is surprising as the outside has never been repainted) because the transmission and engine have been painted white. However, Grit seems more authentic.