What NATO acrylic colors by brand do folks use thanks
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try tamiya XF 67 nato green, XF 68 nato brown, XF 68 nato black
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For a used look I use Tamiya NATO green & black
For a very faded green I have used Tamiya German Field Grey -XF65
For a brand new paint finish or highly looked after - AK RC NATO colours
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Tamiya nato green and nato brown.
Rubber black instead of nato black which looks too much grey.
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Yup - the choice of XF-67 and XF-65 depends on how vibrant the green needs to be. I find German subjects are brighter, while British tanks are more Field Grey. As for black, I mix NATO Black and Black 50:50 to get a good shade.
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I prefer long discontinued Floquil Military Color for NATO Tri-Color. However, many outstanding alternatives are available.
- MRP Mr Paint for NATO Tri-Color.
Itâs thinned perfectly for airbrushing right out of the bottle.
The red brown & green are close enough to certain German WW2 AFV colors to âpassâ. Likewise, the black can pass as Panzer Gray/Dunkelgrau RAL 7021 if the base coat color is light and then thin light coats of NATO black are applied. The colors obviously arenât exact WW2 RAL matchesâŚbut with weathering etc are pretty close in my experience.
- Tamiya for NATO TriColor acrylic/acrylic laquers are fantastic too. Excellent with X20A acrylic thinner but outstanding with Tamiya Lacquer thinner in my opinion.
I give MRP the nod because itâs ready to rock & roll straight out of the bottle and will do what I want. Tamiya can be sprayed out of the bottle but in my view needs a fair amount of thinner to spray similar.
HTH
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What about AK Real Colors. Anyone use these before
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See my post above.
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Another quick question, does France use the same NATO colors? I ask because sometimes photos of French Leclerc tanks show a green which seems brighter, and a brown which looks closer to a creamy brown. I have a Tamiya Leclerc on the way, which is why I ask.
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I happen to agree. But Iâm only going by photos seen on the interweb.
I prefer POLLY Scale. Decades ago when I built models for Lockheed Martin, they were somewhat demanding. I found the POLLY Scale NATO tri green and brown to be very good matches, and the paint itself always seemed to outperform Tamiya. I used whichever black I had on hand because these represented factory fresh vehicles. I do agree that rubber or some very dark shade of gray is better for the black on any vehicle that has been in the sun for an hour. Something about Tamiyaâs brown seemed off. Maybe it was play on German vehicles? I used to do a lot of Bundeswehr models in HO. I canât remember, but I didnât care for it,
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Iâve always Trusted Tamiya Paints
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They are not Real !!!
I tested them on paper first & they looked good but when I applied them on the model, they were terrible!
Here is my Bronco M1114 painted by AK Real Colors & my Academy M1151 painted in Revell Colors,
They are too bright, the NATO black was more greyish blue than black so I had to add flat black to it
But you can see on the chassis & wheels how incorrect the paint is!
Revell NATO paints are very convenient in my opinion
36165 Bronze Green, 36184 Leather Brown, 36106 Tar Black
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I think each country uses a slightly different colour tone for the NATO colours as they all appear slightly different when viewed next to each other. I would guess that the NATO colour reference is more a generic thing as in " this type of green/brown & black".
It will also be more to do with generic terms bearing in mind that this was originated during the cold war when it was NATO and Warsaw Pact ⌠so you usually had NATO 3 or 2 tone colours on our vehicles, and the WP vehicles were usually a type of Soviet Green or slight variation on it.
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I dont personally think you can say they are wrong or incorrect. They simply offer a different tone and finish. AK RC range give a more new/fresher paint scheme that look like the vehicle has just come off the factory floor.
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Hmmm. Which countryâs NATO colours?
When I researched this a while ago, I learnt that Tamiyaâs NATO colours were good for modern German (they were released about the same time as their Leopard IIRC). For other NATO countries, I tend to research those more specifically
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Regarding French camouflage paints, I know that instead of âLeather Brownâ they use âTerre de Franceâ brown, which indeed is conspicuously different in pictures. As for green and black tones, maybe one of our French contributors can tell?
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I think the basic issue is the NATO camo standard seems to have been defined as âgreenâ, âbrownâ, & âblackâ, with each country coming up with its own formulation, so the results vary from one country to another. As @Chauvel says above, the Tamiya colours seem to relate to their German kitsâŚ
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I think youâll find that there are no defined âstandardâ NATO colour shades. No rules, no orders, no instructions or NATO-wide specified paint mixes. The RAL codes refer to German colour standards, but it seems to have been assumed in the modelling world that these same shades are therefore standard across the rest of NATO - not so.
Instead, each country uses local versions of those colours - some will use the RAL specified paint shades and others will use local variations. The French green and brown tones are definitely richer/brighter than other national combinations.
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The shade is too bright for what it should be!
Itâs not even good for fresh factory painted!
Not even good for French!
Not all AK Real Colors are wrong in shade but NATO colors are wrong
My use for NATO 3-tone-colours are:
Revell Aqua (the blue cubes):
No. 65 Bronze Green
No. 06 Tar Black
No. 84 Leather Brown
or Vallejo ModelAir:
No. 71250 Bronze Green
No. 71251 NATO Black
No. 71249 NATO Brown
But itâs up to everyoneâs personal taste, so no paint is completely on spot or completely wrong. And if you do your weathering thatâs a completely different story then ⌠
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