Good Luck Roel
What kind of trick are you going to use for the rivet on the ceramic tiles ???
I am interested to see your ideas.
Cheers
Seb

Nice work, I'm on board for this one.

Roel
Good luck
did you see my build on the same vehicle??
Cheers
Seb

should be another interesting project to follow

Hi,

A very good project !
Please if you need any information about the French VAB, feel free to come and ask your questions here: http://maquette-garden.forumactif.com/de-la-2-guerre-mondiale-a-nos-jours-f38/

( don't worry for posting in english ! )

Done Roel with the answer.

Your seats are really great congrats.
Are you going to make some casting because I am interested
Cheers
seb

Roel
Ok my hat off, truly outstanding job, if the rest of the vehicle i gonna be like this, it will be difficult to compete with you
BTW you need to make some modification on the Wheels because the ones from blast doesnot come with the inflation system pipe.
Cheers
Seb

Roel my hat really goes off to you Superb work! I really like your scratch building and detailing it should turn this dog of a kit into a superb build. I've bookmarked it for when I get around to building my Lebonease verson

Tell me when you are gonna start it ok , with the special feature right

Since this an active modern French armor thread, I'll drop my question in here (where the people who know the answers are likely to be reading) rather than starting a new topic.

Can anybody tell me just what the modern French armor colors actually are? The only thing I seem to be able to find is lots of people agreeing that it's *not* the same as the standard NATO scheme, that the green is brighter and that the brown is (depending upon the photo) either lighter/tanner, more chocolate-toned, or more chestnut-toned.

Since it's going to come up in this thread anyway when Roel paints his Valorisee, I thought I'd just ask ahead of time - does anybody have suggestions for what colors to use? I've got two VABs (both with lots of Blast aftermarket bits to tease them into respectability) and a LeClerc sitting on the shelf waiting for this information :-)

Meanwhile, watching the thread closely for improvements to make over and above what the Blast sets provide...

Al

Fear not my man I will

Al
you are right, French Army does not use the similar 3 tones nato camo colors.
The black is not the dark black, the brown one is chocolate and green has a tendency to be brighter than the 3 nato color.
Someone on French forum has the mixture for the color, let me dig it for you and I will post it here
Cheers
Seb

Thanks - while Heller consistently lists the same three colors across all of its kits that use the tri-tone camouflage (the VAB, AMX-30-105, AMX-30-AU F1) they list three, straight-out-of-the-tinlet Humbrol colors, which is suspiciously simple :-) Well, apart from the black, at least. I think one thing that doesn't help is that there appear to be two distinct browns - although it may just be due to lighting - a "tan" brown, and a "chocolate/chestnut" brown.

Having spent quite a lot on my LeClerc (assorted PE, Bronco tracks) and my VABs (both Eduard PE sets, while one has the Blast sets to upgrade the basic vehicle to a decent standard, and the other has their Valorisé upgrade), I'd hate to spoil them by painting them the wrong color.

Cheers,

Al

Here's Olivier "Bison126" Carneau's choice for French tri-tone camo :
XF5 Flat green, XF64 Red brown and XF1 Black.

HTH

Frenchy

To get this color topic more embarrassing the French paint has a tendency to fade a lot and often very quickly.
Considering that the VAB valorisé is quite new, the paint can look factory-fresh and my "recipe" applies. If you depict a operation used vehicle, you can give it a faded look.

The best is to look at the pics I have in my site as well as the other usual sites with walkarounds from which Prime Portal, Maquetland and Maquette Garden

Olivier

Olivier, I'd already been all over your site and those you mention looking at pics My initial reaction on seeing the colors you generally recommend was that XF-5 was a great match but that XF-64 was "too red". However, that was purely from memory - looking at a couple of cases where I've actually used XF-64, it's not nearly as red as I remember. I think XF-5 and XF-64 are good matches, while XF-1 definitely looks more "right" than the NATO Black.

You mention that it fades - would I be right in guessing that the brown fades from the more "chestnut" tone that XF-64 is a good match for, to the more "tan" color? That would explain the variation in browns that I see - alternatively, it just could be the case that lighting is a major factor. I know the French scheme differs from the NATO one deliberately since the green, at least, is a better match for southern parts of France than the default NATO colors. Having lived in two parts of the US - Wisconsin where I am now, and Virginia, I'm very aware that in Virginia's much warmer climate, the greenery was more vivid, and I could see the NATO scheme sticking out quite badly in amongst that sort of greenery.

I've encountered (going way off topic here) a similar issue with South Korean camouflage. A lot of resources (box art, even instructions in some case) suggest putting vehicles like the K1A1 in something that's essentially the US MERDC scheme for "Winter, Verdant" but with the field drab replaced by a tan color. However, photos of vehicles in this scheme taken in purely ambient light on cloudy days shows the scheme to be identical to the US MERDC "Winter, Verdant" scheme.

Hmm - I'll have to go back and look over those photos to see if the "tan" brown on French vehicles coincides with photos taken in sunny conditions, while the "chestnut" brown matches those in cloudy conditions.

Anyway, thanks to all those who responded to my little thread within a thread. I'm now going to sit back and watch Roel convert his VAB to build up a list of changes that the Blast conversion doesn't cover.

Cheers,

Al

Al,
here is a factory-fresh paint



here is what you can get when I speak about fading !



The range of shades is not that narrow Even the black is much more greyish.

Olivier

Hello all

For starters thanks for viewing and posting comments. Always a great boost to continue the work doesn't it?
I don't have much progress but some is more than none. The lower hull has received its extra armour plates:





Thanks for viewing

Roel