I paid attention to paint schemes and colors. I was already a modeler before I enlisted and when I saw different paint schemes I paid attention to what the colors were. Unfortunately my memory of the patterns used did not hold as well, as there was a lot of variety from the standard MERDC patterns then in use. I did get some good photos of some vehicles and the variations, but film and developing were not like todays digital cameras. Choose your 20+ shots per roll carefully.
Hi!
Regarding the “Ortseingangsschild” which marks the town´s outline, these were not always fitted into a frame, especially not in the timeframe of MASSTER. See a sign from a city 10km off my hometown pictured in 2019. The article reports of that sign being stolen and reappearing 24 hours later,
Even in 2019, it had no frame around it.
This one is actually only 8km away.
So don´t worry! Everything alright with that sign!
The sign marks the road from Neuhof to Preußling, 15km northwest of Grafenwöhr. And the vehicles, really lovely painted and weathered!
Andreas
Andreas, that is so gratifying - as well as saving me some work! Thank you too for the comments; also, your attachment highlights Bielefeld, my very first posting way back in 1971, where of course, on exercise with Corps HQ, I encountered the MASSTER scheme in the first place.
I loved Bielefeld as I slowly but surely got to know it, but then, the FRG appeared to my impoverished eyes as almost exotic - such were the privations of a dreary UK back then. And of course, I was just beginning my career back then - all that enthusiasm! Where did it go?
Brian,
did we actually have an exercise here in my hometown (15km north of Bielefeld) with 7th army in that timeframe? I remember the first ever seen “tanks” here in my hometown when I was a little boy between 8 and 12. That might have been in 1971. I remember M551, M114, M113, and when my memory does not fool me, these were MASSTER camouflaged. I may also remember some sort of AMX13 APCs and was fascinated they did carry a one-axle trailer behind. Maybe dutch army origin. Can you confirm such an exercise in that year or shortly after, no later then 1973?
Sadly, no, or not that I remember. The British Army trains with 2 types of exercises, FTXs (Field/Formation Training Exercise - in other words units deploying out on the ground with their equipment), and CPXs (Command Post Exercise - with an HQ deploying and the Staff being tested in plans and procedures, and movement etc); my unit, being a HQ, undertook the latter. The Corps HQ originated ones were code-named “Sales” so we endured a Summer Sales, an Autumn Sales, and a Winter Sales. On occasion we joined in the larger/NATO CPxs, WINTEX/CIMEX and the ABLE ARCHER series.
On my first exercise which must have been a Winter Sales in '71, amidst trying to master my trade and understand what the bloody hell was going on - I was only 17 - I noticed that a small US detachment had turned up, with their vehicles all in MASSTER - Gama Goat, M151, and an M35 all with what we referred to as Box Bodies (Office trucks if you like - less the M151 of course). I’m sure I asked what and who they were and I’m pretty sure they were the Nuclear Surety boys. In fact, I vaguely remember knocking on the door of one of their vehicles when I had whatever the hell document it was to distribute around the Staff Cells.
So sorry, I can’t really help. Mind you, there were countless exercises going on back then, and we seemed to bump into other nationalities’ units - not always but fairly often, and I found it all fascinating; I will never forget a companies worth of Jagdpanzerkanone roaring through our HQ location in a small village once - very impressive, as armour in a hurry always is.
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In the former US Zone there would usually be at least two FTX’s a year and often more. As Brian states an “FTX” is a Field Training Exercise, and usually the entire unit goes to the field. These almost always involved 2-3 Divisions, with all the appropriate Corps troops in support, as well as allied units as well.
They were almost always timed so that the crops were already in so that damage to them could be minimized. There were always “Maneuver Damage Teams” following in the wake of the troops who would take notes on damage to roads and property to ensure proper restitution. It still boggles my mind that units of that size with all those vehicles were allowed to simply fight mock battles all over the countryside, pretty much driving wherever they chose, both on AND off road. While I know that similar exercises took place here in the US back in the early ‘40s’ primarily in the rural south, I cannot IMAGINE a Corps size unit moving all over private property here in the US today. For sure that’s why we have such large training areas like the NTC out in the middle of nowhere!
And as Brian mentions, there were also “CPX’s” just as he says with only the HQ and staff out in the field, mostly to test communication and coordination in the field.
That was a totally different world with paper maps, FM radios and NO digital equipment or GPS. I always wonder how well today’s soldiers would manage if they had to rely on a 1:50,000 map, 7x50 binoculars, an M2 compass, Field Wire networks and the Mark One eyeball!!!
At the Seattle IPMS meeting today, one of our members brought in a nicely done model of the M114 finished in MASSTER which he commanded. I told him about our difficulty in getting definitive FS colors. He pulled out his binders with the TM’s and a copy of the painting order he was given. This was a 1st Armored Div document. It lists the colors as:
- Brown No. 30117
- Sand Brown No. 30277
- Green No. 34127
- Black No. 37038
The green and the sand are different FS numbers than we are seeing in some of the secondary sources. I think I am going to use these FS numbers for my MASSTER paint scheme(s).
Below is a photo of that page complete with color “chips” that were painted onto the paper at the time of issue.
He was a modeler at the time and kept his copy all of these years!
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Rick, that is awesome!!! Can you get in touch with him again? It appears that 1st Armored Division evidently issued a supplementary Regulation to the VII Corps Reg (which in turn was a supplement to the USAREUR Reg.) and this document is marked as “Annex 4”
If you look closely at the bottom of this document it references two Appendices:
I. Application of Camouflage Paint on Typical Military Vehicles and
II. Required Quantities of Oil Base Paint for Typical Military Vehicles.
I would bet money that Appendix I is none other than what I have listed above which was the original set of templates created back in 1966 when the project was first started.
I would love to have a copy of the original document to which this is Annex 4. That should list what Regulation it is (1st AD Reg XXX-XX) or show that it is a Supplement to some VII Corps Reg.
And since it SHOULD list the original Regulations to which this is a supplement, it will list not only THOSE regulations, but almost certainly will list the DATE that regulation was published.
Your friend may be one of the only people I’ve ever come across who might be able to uncover these source documents which seem to have not been kept by anyone.
Thanks so much!!
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Unless the entire unit was painted at the same time there will be some variance between the vehicles due weathering. Black seemed to change the quickest,
Absolute fact! Unlike some of the later schemes which more often than not were originally applied at a Depot and used air guns to spray it on where it was done by the depot personnel and the vehicles delivered to the units already painted (which would generally lead to a much more consistent look), MASSTER was done by taking plain O.D. vehicles, grabbing the above templates, drawing lines as best as you could and then hand painting the scheme. And this was done by THOUSANDS of individual soldiers in hundreds of units all across Germany so as long as the colors are “close” and the patterns “close”, anyone who does a vehicle in the MASSTER scheme and paints each color on by hand has done it right, and no critic can say it isn’t right,
Just like MERDC… have fun 
Tom, I checked with my friend and all that he has are the page with the colors and the two template pages for his unit’s vehicles. The templates are from the same set that you posted. At least we now have an original document with the FS color call outs for MASSTER.
I still think it is amazing that a 20-year-old buck Sergeant held onto the instructions on how to paint his M114 for 50 years waiting for someone to release a kit.
It certainly confirms what I’ve assumed, that what we used as templates in 1973 were the ones created (in a classic panic!) back in 1966.
It is amazing that he kept what he did, and confirms what the colors are. I’m still sure somebody at Tankograd either has or know who has the USAREUR Reg from back in 1973, since they mention it in the book on camouflage. I’ll keep bugging the net and eventually SOMEBODY will turn up a copy.
Thanks for checking!!