Renault FT and TSF – ‘Painting the Tanks’ – Camouflage – Part One - Inside Track | Renault TSF Tank Kent

Our paint conservation partners have now established all the external colours needed on the Renault FT and TSF. This includes; the red lead primer, the subsequent green black used in the engine bay as discussed in a previous piece and then the final layers making up the camouflage. We are the stage in the project where everything has to be on hand for the delivery of the Renault FT and TSF to be completed on schedule ready for the numerous events they have been invited to attend. The exact paint references under the Natural Colour System required for the final treatment have been ordered for collection in a few days. Last week we discussed the treatment of the fighting compartment for both vehicles providing the detail of how the paint was applied and what the colours were in the crew cabin. There will be a further piece to cover the ammunition bins and the turret when these areas are painted. In our archive we have the original instructions on the application of the camouflage. A department Section De Camouflage operated within the Atelier Central (Central Workshop) in Paris from which a number of original documents survive. This department was under the command of General Estienne Officer Commanding Artillerie Speciale. There is a fascinating sequence of correspondence leading to the creation of the Section De Camouflage which we will cover at a later date. The basis for the camouflage treatment was penned by none other than General Estienne on December 1917 well after the commencement of the Renault FT project. This section is taken from the piece titled Painting the Tanks ‘Matt paint with light mottled green, brown and veined Café au lait (milk coffee) and stratified with black. The vision slots and holes should be concealed at the edge of a dark vein. False slits and fake holes are to be simulated with black judiciously placed’. How the Renault FT and TSF are to be camouflaged here at the Weald Foundation 100 years after the event requires a full understanding of the chronological standing of both vehicles and where they fitted into the assembly line. We know from the excellent research done by the French magazine GMB that the Renault TSF left the assembly line on the 23rd May 2018. The Renault FT, when positioned against other FT assembly numbers, would have left Billancourt assembly line some time in June 1918. The gives us a clear time period within which we can research archive sources for relevant imagery and documentary confirmation as to the style the camouflage would have taken. A key starting point is a communication from the Ministry of Armament 23rd April 1918 to the various assemblers Renault Berliet, S.O.M.U.A and Delauney-Belleville. ‘As a follow-up to your recent request, I invite the assemblers to give the Camouflage Section Section's instructors the opportunity to provide the painters of these various manufacturers with the necessary information to camouflage the tanks before their release from the factory’. This is a key piece of information as it provides us with a clear direction – the tanks were camouflaged before they left the factory. This instruction was followed by a meeting hosted by M. Munich of the Ministry of Armament on 27 April 1918 - entitled Chars Legers – ‘Camouflage will be done in the factory’. Thus an image of a Renault TSF assembled in May and a Renault FT from June could therefore be relied upon as a good guide for us to follow. This raises another issue – when did a newly painted vehicle left the assembly line? Assembly and registration numbers are essential to be able to position vehicles against ours. Images of the relevant assembly and registration numbers have to be of the period – not post war or late war. The late war angle is difficult as we have yet to ascertain whether overhauled Renault FTs received an updated paint treatment. We are fortunate in having access to many Renault FTs within the desired time period but the TSF is limited to less than a handful of examples. . Another interesting memo from the formidable General Estienne dated 9 September 1918 ‘the last camouflage experiments of tanks in May, by application of dust and hair having provide a very satisfactory result, I ask you to do the necessary so that this method is adopted and that from now on all the tanks will be camouflaged according to this method’. This successful experiment in dulling the paint finish to counter the early less than acceptable matt paint used.

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