Cno7 Chest correct colour?

[Brian Dick]

I had an accumulation of C No.7Mk.1 chests years ago that I finally got tired of tripping over. I sold them for $25 each and I think the shipping was more money!

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[Flying10uk]

If a weapons chest is painted green and it has a Nato number stencilled on it would the green paint normally be expected to be Nato green? I have had a couple of Canadian Bren chests and both were in a very poor state but if memory serves me correctly both had Nato numbers stencilled on them. One chest was only fit for parts and the other required a major rebuild which still needs finishing off. I couldn't tell the shade of green because it was very faded.

[stencollector]

It would not be "NATO" green....I have been in the hobby of military vehicles for 40 years and am not even sure what that is.

The US have their paint colors listed under FS (Federal specification?) codes. Canada, where the chests were used, had CGSB (Canadian Government Specifications Board) codes for it's paint samples. No idea of the British specs aside from the few colours that I have dealt with like the Bronze green, and the yellow/green cam used in Suffield.

When talking the semi-gloss green, the common US specification of FS24087 and the earlier used FS23070 do not equate to the Canadian olive green colour, which does not have the brownish tint of the American color. The Canadian colour is much darker.

Canada dropped the CGSB specification as a reference sometime in the early 80s, and the paints we use now are normally the US camouflage colours. But since we are talking Canadian used chests, likely painted in the 50s, 60s and 70s, they would normally be re-painted with the dark semi gloss olive green.

We did get some vehicles directly from the US, and in the 50s we got Ferrets and Centurians from the British. The British stuff came in the British green, however come paint time they were repainted in the Cdn semi-gloss and later in the Canadian 3 colour camoflauge. I can't say about the Triumph TRWs we bought. I had one and the colour sure looked like the Canadian green as opposed to the British green that the spare parts came in. It is possible that Canada specified our colour of paint when they were produced, but I can't say for certain.

Anyway, this is a gun forum, so I don't want to go too long on a tangent about vehicle paint. Suffice it to say that the chests would get re-painted in the colour that was in the supply system at the time.

We often see the pale sandy-yellow used to overpaint the nomenclature area of the chests, particularly on the sniper chests, and sometimes on the Cno7 chests, and rarely on the Bren chests. Not sure why that colour was chosen, however it may have been a supply thing because it was easier to read from a distance.

[Flying10uk]

I had assumed that "Nato Green" was used by all Nato countries, not just the British. Not necessarily to paint everything that required a green paint but a stock item that was available.