Vallejo Paint Colors for Modern US Vehicles?

[Damraska]

I want to purchase (mostly) correct Vallejo Model Air colors for some post World War II US vehicles.

Note: Last year, I switched from enamels to Vallejo acrylics. Learning to paint with a completely new system was rather painful. Having achieved much hard won knowledge, I do not want to buy into a third paint system and begin that learning process anew. Oh hell no.

From about 1950 to …196x.
Needed for Tamiya M41, AFV Club M41, and Takom M47 tanks.
Vallejo 71043 Olive Drab (FS34087)
Is this right?

Around 1988 or so.
Needed for a Academy M163.
Vallejo 71093 NATO Green (FS34094)
Vallejo 71251 NATO Black (FS37030, RAL9021)
Vallejo 71249 NATO Brown (FS30051, RAL8027)
Are these right?

Desert wars.
Needed for a Dragon M1A1 AIM.
What is right?

After building a M41, M47, M48, M60, and M1, my plan is to diversify into more exotic US vehicles. This is all new territory for me. Are there any other US colors I should know about and purchase?

Thank you!

[Damraska]

While doing research on this question, I came upon this very interesting website:

AFV Colors and Camouflage, US Army & USMC

In addition to covering modern US paint schemes, it contains some new (to me) information on US Olive Drab, post dating the Steve Zaloga article from 2003 (or so).

Based on the above article, Vallejo 71043 is a decent match for US Olive Drab circa 1956, which should be about right for a M41 and M47.

As an aside, for World War II Olive Drab, the author makes a Vallejo paint suggestion I have not seen before. I intend to give it a try.

This is a picture from the above article, showing where I want to go…

Edit: The linked article answered all of my questions.

For the 1991 Gulf War, Vallejo 71122 US Desert Armour 686 (FS33446).

For Afghanistan 2001, Iraq 2003, and beyond, Vallejo 71327 IAF Sand (FS33531).

In my original post I skipped over MERDC (which is not NATO!), Forest Green, and some interesting side steps along the way, especially during Vietnam.

For anyone unfamiliar with the twists and turns of US camouflage colors, I highly recommend reading the entire article linked above. Not only will it answer many questions about camouflage colors, it includes numerous pictures to inspire model projects and further research.

Now if you will all excuse me, I need to conduct another paint audit before ordering anything…

[Seanmcandrews]

I don’t have anything to add to the conversation but thanks for that website, some very interesting stuff !

[Littorio]

This is interesting and thanks for the link to the article, however I’m now confused.
I always thought that the Stryker was finished in Forest Green however the article states they are NATO green, I feel that I now need to do more digging.