Wow that came awesome!
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Hey Matt are those real colors acrylic? And how are they to use ?
Rich
Thanks for the compliments on my fire truck guys. Much appreciated. It’s not quite done yet. I think I’m going to keep it pristine because it is, after all, a firetruck. AK Real Colors are lacquers. I thin them 50\50 with hardware store lacquer thinner and shoot them at 12 PSI. They shoot smooth and problem free. They are the nicest performing paints I have ever used. No tip dry, no clogs, no drips, no runs, no fog, just airbrushing Nirvana. They dry fast, hard, and smooth. I had a 4 hour airbrush session last weekend using them and never had a problem the whole day. Cleanup is super easy, lacquer thinner removes 99% of the paint from the airbrush, and cleaning the parts in lacquer thinner is quick and easy. I highly recommend them for airbrushing and they brush paint very well, too.
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34079 was the base color for vehicles in that era, early to mid 80’s. Before CARC/NATO colors came along, the base color off the production line or depot overhaul was in that green. MERDC patterns were applied on top of that. Early Abrams’ and Bradley’s stayed in that color.
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So, if i decide to replicate this particular tank that color is corretct?..and then also the Ak4013 “forest green”
34102 was not used as an overall base color on US AFVs. It was only used as the secondary pattern color over 34079 on the MERDC tropical verdant scheme.
Ok, I’m confused, but if the colour profile give it in that colour I think that could be right, or in your opinion the profile itself is wrong?
If I’ll do the winter version then I will use the greynish tone, but if I’ll decide to make the reforger version with mud camo, the green to use seems to be that in colour profile, or I’m wrong?
@Merki4 You’re working off of a profile, which are usually an artist’s interpretation of a photo. You’re not using an actual photo for your reference. That being said, Forest Green, 34079, was the delivery color for US Army vehicles, at that time frame. Could the unit have repainted them into 34102? Yes, but why. And did their support unit have that color on hand? Now, a point on the MERDC paints in use at the time- they were prone to fading. All of the shades in the line faded. 34079 when new was indeed dark, chalky, and grayish. But it tended to fade into a lighter, almost bronze green over a short time and could take on a more greenish or even bluish look once faded long term. The artist probably was trying to replicate that faded weathered look. If the Abrams was not repainted, the base forest green would look quite darker when delivered in 1982 or 83, compared to the time just before they were replaced by an IP M1 in 1985/86 timeframe.
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I know that these photos are not taken at the same time, place, or under the same light conditions, but they show how the 34079 fades.
On this Abrams, it’s very new, grayish, and dark, practically factory fresh
On this Abrams, it has started to fade and weather.
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Oh yeah good point
Oh ok ok, now i have undertsnd, thanks a lot for explanation 
Oh, since we are talking about tanks color, I’m (very slowly) working on a diorama setting in Berlin at the Checkpoint Charlie during the 1961’s crisis and need to konw if the fs 34079 was already in use for US M48A1 of the Berlin Brigade, watching the few color pics to me seems the same color but…guys, you are the expert 
Many thanks in advance
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Cool pics!!
Those photos were colorized (Lord that is a pet peeve of mine). The originals are all around in glorious noir B&W on the web. 34079 did not come around as a base color until the mid to late 70’s when the MERDC scheme was introduced. At the time of the Berlin Wall Crisis, the standard color of US Army vehicles was semi gloss Olive Drab, FS 24087.
A much darker shade of Olive Drab would be used starting in the late 60’s until the MERDC schemes came along. I don’t know what the FS number is for that shade, but it is dark, almost a black green.
Compare the 34087 searchlight to the Dark OD of the rest of the tank.
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Those 16 M1A1s, owned by the USMC, were the Heavy Common variants, while as mentioned the HAs came from Army Stocks, which were returned and reissued to Army units (that info was from US Army Tank and Automotive Command’s M1 “expert”. I had one in my tank company in Germany. It had about 300 more miles on the odometer that the other 13 tanks had. It also had a bunch of AK rounds, a USMC Tanker’s souvenirs, hidden in the heater duct that surprised the crew with we tested the heaters in October and a number of those 7.62 rounds cooked off.
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Gino,
The anti-laser coating on the optics (both gunner’s sights, TC’s vision blocks and .50 caliber sight, loader’s and driver’s vision blocks) was a post ODS modification. Just guessing the MWO started in 1996. I was the S3 in 2-72 Armor in 1998 when the MWO was applied to our tanks in Korea and would speculate that we (1-72, 2-72, and 4-7) were the last ones on AD to get the MWO.
JC
I recall a single 240 cooking off after firing in the desert one summer as the gunner and I almost had to change me drawers after that. Maintenance Chief would be mad with me after rounds cooking off from running the heat with the amount of clean up needed. 
Thanks John. Good info.
The black gun bore evaquator on the M48A? was usual or an exception?