Well, I have decided on a scheme....subject to delivery of decals....
of course, me wouldn't be be if I didn't create difficulty for myself!
The subject is C47 "Conqueror II"
as seen here:
Picture courtesy of Drake Goodman
Current convention has it that tanks were a 'brown' colour (even describes as 'poo brown')
looking at this pic I see the following:
- a relatively light colour, nearly the same as the mud caked on the lower rear parts
- the german puppet image seems to have been painted on a darker surface, as do the numer and the 'ace of spades'
My original question was to be what the darker shade could be......then it hit me!
somebody cleaned off the number and the puppet image, probably the photographer to make them show up better!
You can see the wipe marks above the '7' and the top left corner of the puppet figure.
To me it looks like what ever was used to clean dripped and/or splashed downward darkening the surface beneath.
This leads me to the conlusion that the whole tank is covered in a this layer of dried mud/dust that gives it its light tone, and it is that that might also be obscuring the four digit serial number. (if there was one on this side)
I would even go so far as to say fuel or oil was used as a liquid, as the spotting/splashing doesn't 'look' like water to me.
This would make the darker colour the 'poo brown' then.
