British Battledress, 1937–1961

Battledress, Serge, 1940, 1:32 Airfix 02705.

The British Army drab Battledress, Serge was introduced in 1937 to replace the khaki Service Dress. Widely issued in 1939, Battledress was worn until the 1960s, when it was replaced by the olive green 1960 Pattern Combat Dress. The Airfix British Commandos above are seen wearing 1940 Pattern Battledress trousers with the newly introduced dressing pocket in front of the right hip.

Painting British Battledress Uniforms

The painting guides printed on Airfix, ESCI, Italeri, Revell and other plastic miniatures boxes list a variety of »drab« colours suitable for painting British Battledress blouses and trousers, ranging from »Khaki« to »Dark Earth«, with Vallejo 70.921 »English Uniform« being a midtone.

The analog colour scheme matching the Battledress uniform in Plate D7 of Mike Chappell‘s book British Infantry Equipments 1908–80 is a desaturated Tamiya XF-52 »Flat Earth« overall, with »S.C.C. № 2 Brown« for the deepest shadows, and Humbrol 93 »Desert Yellow« as the highlight on the right breast pocket.
The analog colour scheme matching the Battledress uniform in Plate D7 of Mike Chappell‘s book British Infantry Equipments 1908–80 is a desaturated Tamiya XF-52 »Flat Earth« overall, with »S.C.C. № 2 Brown« for the deepest shadows, and Humbrol 93 »Desert Yellow« as the highlight on the right breast pocket.
Matchbox 1:76 scale British Infantry with their medium brown plastic battledress left unpainted, but glazed with a mixture of polyurethane varnish and ivory black artists‘ oil paint.
Matchbox 1:76 scale British Infantry with their medium brown plastic battledress left unpainted, but glazed with a mixture of polyurethane varnish and ivory black artists‘ oil paint.

Atlantic, Matchbox, ESCI, and Revell British infantry miniatures were cast in a medium brown plastic which lends itself to speed painting by dipping.

Painting Canadian Battledress Uniforms

Battledress uniforms manufactured in Canada, for the Canadian Army, were a noticeable greenish hue of drab, which may be recreated in miniature by mixing equal parts of Vallejo 70.921 »English Uniform« and Vallejo 70.887 »Brown Violet«, or simply using Vallejo 70.924 »Russian Uniform« as the base colour.

Painting Australian Battledress Uniforms

Battledress uniforms manufactured in Australia, for sale to its Commonwealth Allies, were a greenish drab, too. In World-War Two, the Australian Army wore their own version of Service Dress, adopting British Battledress in the latter part of the Korean War.

German Battledress

The German »Feldbluse M44«, a copy of the practical British Battledress blouse, was issued in various shades of grey, brown, and green, instead of the proper greenish-brown hue of »Feldgrau 44« it was to have been manufactured in.

Bibliography

British Miniatures of World War Two