Ok, so I finally get the right FS numbers for the current NATO 3-color painting system. Don't ask what was so hard about that.

Now the problem is to come up with model paints that will duplicate them. Can anyone give me an idea what paints will do the job?

Green 383 FS34094
Brown 383 FS30051
Black 383 FS37030
Sand 686/686A FS?????

I usually use ModelMaster, both enamel and acrylic (prefer acrylic, because I will be airbrushing). If there are other brands, can you tell me where I can get them?

Tamiya makes the following colors:
XF-67--NATO Green
XF-68--NATO Brown
XF-69--NATO Black

In Model Master paints here are the closest colors:
1786 Medium Field Green--FS34095
2096 Schokoloaden Braun (Chocolate Brown)
1749 Flat Black--FS37038
1704 Armor Sand--FS3027 (last digit obscured on my bottle)

Of course, I'm a "close enough" type of guy and I usually just eyeball the correct color until it looks right.

OK, the Medium Field Green I have. The brown...hmmm.

In sorting through my bottles, I ran across Aricraft Interior Black, which is FS37031 and seems right to me.

Thanks, Sabot.

Floquil produced:

NATO Tricolor Black FS37030
NATO Tricolor Green FS34094
NATO Tricolor Brown FS30051
US Sand 303174

Checking my references (and what memory I have remaining), there was a period when M1s, M2/3s and other vehicles were delivered in a dark green color. This color appears to be darker than the current forest green in the NATO camouflage. Does anyone have an idea of the FS # for this color?

I believe that the color was "Tri-color Green", I mentioned above. I remember seeing the newly delivered Bradley's and Abrams from the 3rd ID in this solid color. Plus, when my Battalion received our M60A3s, in 1983, (the last unit in Europe to receive them) they came from the rebuild facility at Mainz-Kastel in the dark NATO green CARC. We were told that the Germans had not finished their tests, for NATO, for the new camo patterns. So they just put base coat of green on everything that received the new CARC.

I personally like using Tamiya Miliatary Brown instead of the the NATO Brown, since the NATO Brown Color seems to be forumlated for German Armor and the brown color has a orange tinge to it compaired to the US NATO brown which is more brownish-then orangish in person.

my .02

Scott

I have noticed that sun and weather seems to be very hard on the pigments in the CARC paints. Park an older vehicle next to a newly painted one, and they look like they were painted different colors. (By older, I mean a year or two!) The black turns grey, the brown fades and turns orangey, and the green seems to fade almost blue-green. Interesting effect, and makes choosing paints somewhat simpler since color matching is not critical. In this case I want to start with the proper base colors and go from there...just my particular quirk.