Early Cold War NATO tank colors

[Master Zen]

Hello folks,

I tried googling this but got no clear answers: were early Cold War NATO tanks US olive drab? I'm talking about, say, Pershings, M48s, Leopard 1s, etc., before they began adopting the 3-tone scheme in the 80s (?)

Thanks!

[Andy K]

Pretty much green, green and more green. I think the German stuff MAY have been a different shade of green....but it was still green

[badger]

Hi,

Yep - green it was. Each country had their own colour schemes though, there was no unified NATO colour. US tanks were a very dark olive drab whereas German were a deep dark green.

Might be easier to search for the specific tank you want. Osprey have a NATO tanks books in their vanguard series that could be useful.

Ben

[Andy K]

This link may be useful for US vehicles;

Linky thing

Basically up until 1975 it was OD then after it would have been the four colour MERDC scheme of which the base colour was usually FS34079 Forest Green. There are plenty of pics available of M1 Abrams, M60's, M113's etc in overall Forest Green.

Edited May 13, 2012 by Andy K

[Master Zen]

I personally like Xtracrylix Faded Olive Drab for US WW2-tanks. I figure I can use that for post-war vehicles too. As for the Leopard 1s, maybe Forest Green? They do look olive-drabish to me though>...

Also, is Russian Green the same for cold war tanks? I've used Vallejo for WW2 tanks.

[Graeme]

Hello folks,

I tried googling this but got no clear answers: were early Cold War NATO tanks US olive drab? I'm talking about, say, Pershings, M48s, Leopard 1s, etc., before they began adopting the 3-tone scheme in the 80s (?)

Thanks!

British vehicles were Deep Bronze Green for a while before the current green/black camo finish came into use, and of course the Army never used the NATO 3-colour scheme in BAOR - Bundeswehr vehicles used to be a sort of almost greyish/green before the NATO Scheme was adopted...from some colour pictures I have of Leo 2A4's, taken at our barracks at Fallingbostel at an open day, they almost look like a variation of RLM02!

Of course that could be because they were particularly clean for the open day, and in bright sunshine.

HTH

Graeme

[Andy K]

Also, is Russian Green the same for cold war tanks? I've used Vallejo for WW2 tanks.

Funny enough there was a documentary on the BBC a few years ago showing various Soviet apc's and tanks and the green on a BTR-70 was very close to Humbrol Matt 86, which was handy as I was building the Dragon kit at the time.

[Chillidragon]

If it's any help, for my NATO armour I've decided (so far) on:

British Bronze Green - Revell 65

US Olive Drab - Humbrol 66

West German Green - not yet decided.

As for interiors, I know that British AFVs were painted in some sort of Aluninium Primer, for which I'm using Humbrol 191. I've just painted my BW Models Ferret 4 interior with this and am wondering if it was worth it. I won't be painting the interior of my Chieftains in this - matt black here, to disguise the fact that the commander is sitting on a floor which ought not to be there...

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi,

Bundeswehr vehicles used to be a sort of almost greyish/green before the NATO Scheme was adopted...from some colour pictures I have of Leo 2A4's, taken at our barracks at Fallingbostel at an open day, they almost look like a variation of RLM02!

Interesting. I have never seen them with my own eyes, but I remember to have read the same thing on a book twenty or more years ago.

I remember to have seen Austrian vehicles, and their color was a khaki shade, not a green at all.

About Italian vehicles, three shades of green were utilized: the most ancient one was a very dark olive green, then it was changed with a bit lighter olive green, and the predominant one in the last 20 years is a medium green in the range of fs 34102 (not sure about the exact match).The three shades camo uses a sort of coal black and a dark brown, that is much more greyish than the red brown proposed by Tamiya for the NATO camouflage.

For Japanese tanks, I've seen three colors in photos: a sort of greyish olive drab, that is supplied from Tamiya too, for uniformly colored vehicles. Other ones are painted with dark green and dark brown, but I can only guess the shades from the photos.

Do anyone know any page with these informations? Else, it would be good for looking more detailed informations and resume them into a table. Probably the most important ones are already supplied from some producers.

Regards

Massimo