I just received a Vespid 1/72 Australian Centurion 5/1 as used in Viet Nam. The painting instructions say to use OD. The box art looks a lot greener. Should it actually be US OD, SCC 15, Bronze Green, or something else?
you can use Tamiya TS-28 (OD Green 2); it sprays greener than TS-5 (OD Green).
Tamiya TS-5
Tamiya TS-28.
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So olive green (Tamiya) might work? I already have a bottle of that color.
it should. I’ve use Tamiya Acrylics almost exclusively, with a few other colors from AK Real Color.
You should be good to go.
Great!
Yeah I know. OD is definitely brownish and I use it on my WWll US vehicles. Olive Green is obviously more greenish, and I usually mix a bit of that with the OD to make SCC 15. But in this case I will use Olive Green straight.
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This Australian company The Scale Modellers Supply makes an awesome product for the colour you seek.
Not sure if there is a retailer in Canada.
Aussie Cents in Viet Nam were painted in a lustreless OD.
In the old Humbrol enamel colours the best match was French Artillery Green.
Interestingly, spare parts were sometimes shipped directly from supplier in UK to the Australian Task Force in Nui Dat in UK Bronze Green. A good source of photos is the Australian War Memorial Advanced Search | Australian War Memorial
Centurion tank of C Squadron 1st Armoured Regiment (1AR) RAAC providing armoured support. | Australian War Memorial
Hope that assists.
regards,
CM
Thanks. According to the color photos in the provided link, I will have some leeway in my choice of colors. Some Centurions appear a brownish US OD, some a definite Olive Green, and others as a mix of German Field Gray/Olive Green, probably due to fading, and local dust, etc.
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A little fade, some caked up red clay mud from the local terrain, you should be fine. 
This vehicle is a Cent dozer in Royal Australian Armoured Corps Museum in Puckapunyal (Victoria, Australia)
Hope this helps,
Australian Centurions are not US Olive Drab. The colour is a special local colour ‘Olive Drab Lusterless’. Those pics are of an old washed out colour. It’s more of a brown tinged olive green as per these official samples:
I have a build log of my 1/35 one here:
Hi. The common misconception is that all Vietnam soil is the red colour. In fact, for the most part, the soil where the Aussies operated was not red. Check out the colour pics in my thread as per above.
The SMS paint ‘Camo Green’ is not Lusterless OD. It is way too dark and far too green. I tried that for my Centurion build and rejected it.
The closest I could get was usingAK orange cap series AK 4021 Olive Drab Lusterless with AK 136 Olive Drab Highlights 2:1. It could use a tad more AK 136.
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Going over some AK Real Color Pallettes trying to narrow down the shades you have.
What’s the consensus between these two?
Trouble with colour in images like this, is they are not what you actually get. Same as the little brochures you get at paint stores. They are printed in ink, not the actual paint you will buy.
This is AK’s Lustreless OD as per website:
It does not match what comes out of the bottle
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Is there an FS or RAL number for Australian OD?
No. It is not a US Federal Standard paint or German RAL standard Paint. It is Australian Army
colour Olive Drab Lustreless 7650/ADE(M)146-1/1. This site might interest you:
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Our Cents were received into service painted in Bronze Green. At some point in '68 (I think it was), Australian Army vehicles were instructed to be painted in our Lustreless OD (LOD). Naturally, given 1 Armd Regt were in battle in 'Nam, it took some time for these instructions to filter through the system. And I certainly wouldn’t have expected RAEME guys to undertake any field painting on such a large scale.
I have no doubts as cabs were cycled between Australia & VietNam, tanks from Australia may well have arrived in theatre in LOD.
So…long story short. If you want to depict a tank in 'Nam prior to, say 1970, you could safely get away with Bronze Green. After that, LOD may be the go. For variation, you could even have items on the tank still in Bronze Green to depict those bits which have been changed out with Stores