need help in finding out what was the standard for painting us amor from WW1,WW2 KOREA, VIETNAM and thru the present day
Up until the end of Viet Nam it was pretty much an Olive drab/Green Drab color… In mid 70’s the Army looked at camoflauge and went into the Woodland scheme into early 80’s. Since then I know they’ve done variations of that as well as adding various desert schemes. I am sure there are some really good reference books out there, but by getting the Squdron signal books of the M-60 Patton and M-1 Abrams you’ll have a good idea on most.
I like to use Model Master paints for most of my models. Some that I can think of off hand are: Military Brown FS 30117; Italian Dark Brown, US Army/Marines Sand; Dark Green (B-52) FS 34096; Armor Sand FS 30277; US Gulf Armor Sand; Medium Field Green FS 34095; and Dark Green FS 34079.
And Polly Scale’s US Desert Storm Sand FS 33446 looks great when compared with the armored vehicles that I have access to and are painted Desert Sand.
Most of the above will work for modern armored vehicles.
Ga.modler
Try this - look under “feature articles” then “olive drab”
Good luck
Since 1917 the standard camouflage color for US military vehicles was Olive Drab in various shades. Post WW2 shades differed in that they were usually darker ,as the paint was mixed with other liquids such as oil.
Since 1972 the USA ARMY has used the MERDC system (US Army Mobility Equipment Research and Development Command) to camouflage military vehicles against detection by both naked eye and infra-red devices.
The MERDC camouflage includes two basis colours each covering 45% of vehicle’s surface plus two additional colours each on 5% of the remaining surface. The system uses 12 standard camouflage colors in various combinations of creating 8 camouflage color schemes for various areas of globe.
Standard colors of USA ARMY camouflage.
- White FS 37875.
- Desert Sand FS 30279.
- Sand FS 30277 colors FS 30277
- Earth Yellow FS 30257
- Earth Red FS 30117
- Field Drab FS 30118
- Earth Brown FS 30099
- Olive Drab FS 34087
- Light Green FS 34151
- Dark Green FS 34102
- Forest Green FS 34079
- Black FS 37038
The schemes are:
Desert, gray:Sand,Field Drab,Earth Yellow & Black
Desert, red: Earth Red, Earth Yellow, Sand & Black
Snow, temperate climate with open terrain: White, Field Drab, Sand & Black
Snow, temperate climate with trees: Forest Green, White, Sand & Black
Summer, US & Europe: Forest Green, Light Green, Sand & Black
Tropics, verdant: Forest Green, Dark Green, Light Green & Black
Winter, arctic: White, White, White &White
Winter, US & Europe: Forest Green, Field Drab, Sand & Black
Note: Olive Drab FS 34087 was replaced with Forest Green FS 34079 as the basic colour for the manufacturers to supply the vehicles in and for one colour schemes post MERDC.