If your subject is Bundeswehr armor, their paints for camouflage is listed in RAL:
RAL 6031 - Bronzegrün (Bronze Green)
RAL 9021 - Teerschwarz (Tar Black)
RAL 8027 - Lederbraun (Leather Brown)
If you use these paints for other NATO vehicle, I guess, you’re pretty close to the real deal …
Yep - after you add road dust and mud it doesn’t really matter where you started!
However, not all Cadbury’s Dairy Milk is alike. The UK version, Aussie Version and Kiwi versions all taste different. Exactly the same with Nestle made in different countries.
It has become a tradition, that when my wife and I travel, we try each countries offerings just to see the difference.
Interesting to know! I’m only familiar with the UK version.
Yes, people do not realise how much local produce factors play in the final result. Simplest way is to check the ingredient mix and nutrition levels:
Aussie Nutrition advice:
UK Version:
It is amazing how such a little variance can effect the actual outcome.
I would certainly endorse Tamiya’s Field Grey for a decent Brit “NATO Green” viz:
but more recently the colour seems to be a little more “olivey”.
However, whenever I’m painting Brit vehicles from the 70s etc I use Tamiya as above, and for the black stripes/patches Revell’s Enamel No 9 Anthracite.
I’ve seen those pics so many times Brian, but I still chuckle …
And here I thought most people stored their paint on the inside of the tin!
I know - I must come across as a pompous (even repetitive) tw*t sometimes(!)
Funnily enough, I did have a similar sized tin of Gloss Deep Bonze Green, which in my modelling zeal at the time (no factoring in of scale colour etc) I thinned and applied to a Tamiya Centurion - so to my then eyes soooo authentic! I think I’ve still got that model; if nothing else, a template of the real colour.
Yeah, I’m a pretty sloppy modeller when all is said and done.
I’ve used Tamiya Field Gray for green as well, but only for the British black and green scheme.
I’ve noticed differences in the French, German, and US colors, particularly the brown. I don’t lose too much sleep over it. I might adjust it to try and match how it appears in a majority of the photos of that subject. Someone has probably already mentioned scale effect, lighting, fading, and weathering (I don’t generally read entire threads any more - little thing called ADHD) so if it 's close, I’m happy. I almost always go with a very dark gray for the black. Kill too birds with one stone by using it as a primer.
I’ll bet if you do a side by side of this M109A7 it’ll look a little bit different than everything else.
By the way, interesting article on cocoa bean roasting. I could tell you more than you ever want to know about it. It was hot, there was constanty cocoa powder in the air, and almost everyone who worked there for any length of time was missing at least one finger. I worked at Kascho (Kakao Schokoladen Fabrik) in Berlin on Birkbuschstrasse a long time ago. Now defunct unfortunatelty. It was Dutch beans we roasted. I mean, I had to have a real job after all. You can’t put *cigarette black marketeer* on your application for an Aufenhaltserlaubness, right? Anyway, I remember the highest alkalide powder was the darkest, and called SR77 for some reason.
No… but “Discount Tobacco Retailer” or “Duty Free Tobacco reseller”, might not raise an eyebrow…
I alwasy felt that Testors MM Green Drab was a decent match for US NATO green…
It’s been a long time…
Damon.
Oh no… Green Drab is way too dark and brown compared to CARC Green.
For me it was Testors Medium Green
Followed by Flat Black
And finally, Military Brown
I wish They still made the MM enamels. They were good.
Those are good matches for when the CARC colors fade… just gray out the black a bit.
I’ve got a few A0’s I want to do in these colors:
Is it me, or is that AK Real Color for the brown, any brown shown in this thread, about as unreal as it gets?
A very timely and useful article for me. Thanks a lot!
In the AU-F1 assembly instructions from HobbyBoss, Tamiya XF-1 is indicated as black. I didn’t like that very much. On a whim, I chose Mr.Color 521Teerschwar, added some black and got a color that I liked.
In general, it turns out, just as there is no single color for Soviet / Russian equipment, so there is no single palette for NATO equipment: it is determined by the country, operating conditions, painting age, and so on.
