With no definitive answer to British armor green, I guess that the second color Black was applied random ? Or was there a rule how much of the tank will be green or black?
Tamiya recommends in the instruction of their Chieftain kit XF-5 Flat Green and XF-61 Dark Green. That sounds not reasonable to me
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It was applied at random re brushstrokes etc, but the ratio was I recall, 1 third black to 2 thirds green. This was laid down in Material Regulations for the Army, and promulgated in such publications as Defence Council Instructions (Army) and a publication (now long gone) Army Training News.
To be honest, this seems to have diminished in practice of late and most vehicles seem to be left in plain green or even sand (conceivably there isn’t enough green paint available anymore, let alone black).
There were some units which painted all their vehicles in a set pattern, which rather defeated the whole concept, but at least it looked “nice”; yes Household Division, I’m looking at you(!) Sorry John).
Tamiya’s instructions are simply wrong; I suspect they misinterpreted a faded black on a green.
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Brushpainted, really? Then I can´t go wrong painting my models with a brush. 
Tamiya “Chief” kit must be about 50 years old now? So Tamiya is to be excused.
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I am sure that some workshops would repaint with spray equipment as and when vehicles transited through, for whatever reason, or, those Unit-based workshops may well have sprayed the patterns; certainly in my (military) lifetime, I’ve seen both applied.
For the historical record, I have witnessed the process when the instruction came in, during my time at my first posting at Corps HQ in Bielefeld. This is how I described it in a document relating to my time there (and specifically covering deployment and organisation in the field):
Painting of Vehicles. When I first arrived at Corps HQ, the vehicle fleet was largely still in a gloss Deep Bronze Green; Over the ensuing months vehicles were assembled on the barracks’ square, roughly around 20-30 at a time and repainted. I don’t think there was much preparation; a SNCO from 14 Sqn RCT would chalk rough outlines onto the gloss paintwork, and soldiers and the MSO set to with matt olive green and black paint. There didn’t seem to be much expertise applied; I even saw mops and dustpan-type brushes being used to apply the new scheme. Windscreens weren’t even masked off and there was no rubbing down at all, or at least that I noticed; remember, this was all really a fleeting series of glances as I had my own job to do, but I’m pretty sure of my memories, not least as it all seemed somewhat unprofessional. But what the hell did I know?
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I did read a while ago the Army (MOD)decided to go all green because camo was deemed too aggressive🙄
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My take on RFM Chally 2. After I saw these beauty at Leipzig barracks, I decided to build it. When I came across pics of a track training in JMRC Hohenfels. I added the MILES training system.
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That may be true, but I’ll bet you find at least five guys on here including myself that find Tamiya Field Gray to be an excellent match.
The Brits did that in Berlin on their Chieftains for OPSEC reasons - supposedly to make it more difficult to determine how many they had. A silly concept for at least two reasons:
- They didn’t bother to cover up their registration numbers
- The Sovs monitored every single piece of equipment that came into the city by rail.
At least the Americans covered their bumper codes during exercises, either with hundred mile an hour tape or sandbags and tape.
This practice was even followed by at least some US units in Iraq, when we (SF) were told to eliminate all names and artwork from our guntrucks. 3 ACR also painted over markings on many of their Bradleys and Abrams.
Again, it was all a bit silly. We had four gun trucks on our COP. I think one was there for parts. Of the other three, we rarely rolled with more than two at a time. We were probably the most easily recognized crew in Northern Iraq. Kind of like the Rat Patrol, only without the stylish scraves and hats.
I just realized the Brits may have been bloody geniuses! Every time several Chieftains roll out, let’s paint on totally ficticious registration codes. That’ll show those commie bastards!
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Farbe legt im Auge des Betrachters. 
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As Brian @BootsDMS said, it was roughly 1/3 black leaving 2/3 green. For a fairly new or nicely cleaned tank/vehicle, you really cant go wrong with Tamiya XF67 their so called NATO Green.
As Rob @18bravo said, you can also use XF 65 Field Grey for an older faded tank/vehicle. Those are the 2 greens I use. I did use AK RC NATO Green, but found it it a bit to green.
The Tamiya XF 69 NATO Black works well.
Contrary to the myths … we never painted our tanks to a set pattern. We would only hand paint to touch up, either a new wing or bin etc or if there was a parade and they wanted the wagon to look fresh. All our tanks were painted as delivered from base work shops or through the system if it was brand new. Only time they got a full repaint was after a base overhaul at a workshop.
Only time that differed was in UK when the Queen renewed our Standards. All the Regt’s CVRTs went to a car bodyshop in Ascot for a full repaint - each wagon cost about £850 - 900 - about 90 wagon in total !! (and we had to do the masking up !!! )
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From that line it’s clear that the technology for applying camouflage schemes by individual units has not significantly advanced since Inspectorate 2 issued its 1943 directive that Heer vehicles were to be repainted in dunkelgelb with an overpattern of olivgrun and rotbraun. Presumably the new colors are issued as ready-to-use paints, rather than the pastes which was delivered to the Heer units, resulting in a wide range of actual colors depending on the solvent actually used to make the pastes usable.
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Ha! I’m sure you’re right! I must just stress that this was back in 1971/72. To my untutored eyes (that is, in the way of the British military) it all seemed very amateur, but as I wrote earlier - “What the hell did I know?”
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It was more a case of simply not painting the markings. Most of our tanks and Brads were replaced with new, upgraded vehicles, with factory fresh desert sand paint. All of the other vehicles got painted in deserts sand, some rather badly.
We just never painted the bumper numbers on, saving us a lot of work and time.
Of course, then we painted those big tactical markings on the sides, which kinda blew the whole point of not painting the bumper numbers!
A little hard to make out through all the dust, but we have the name on the gun and the big C4 on the side, but no bumper numbers. Later we would add the inverted V:
No scarves or hats? I am so disappointed!
Ken
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Yep, those got painted over!
Ken
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Just tell KBR what new codes you need painted on, and you’re golden. We took over the vehicles we needed from the last task force that we relieved in the Balkans, added new bumper codes, and passed them on to our relief…
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