Finally, after some hours of deflashing and some reshaping the accesories for my Tamiya M1A2 are ready for paint (modern U.S. military equipment kit Tamiya Item#: 35266). Unfortunately the manual does not contain any information about the colours for these parts but the tank itself.

Many photos on the internet show this set painted but i could only guess the right tones pretty vaguely. Also i thought about painting the parts with oils and therefore i would like to have a colour reference as precisely as possible.

I already tried to get the manual of the kit itself but i haven't made a find so far. Anybody got it as an PDF or something like that? That would be really nice, just like any other kind of help of course. Thanks!



Bernd

hello, I built my Abrams a few years ago with a few references from the internet and a book I have. It is the Dragon Aim kit, and I might still have instructions some where, If you want I can look up color information. I have attached a few pictures of my Abrams and stowage, I believe the colors are accurate as possible. Let me know if you have any questions.

You can find an assembly guide with paint codes on Hobby Search.

I hope this helps.

First: that is one very good looking Abrams Nathan. I especially like the preshading and the chipping.

Thanks to Jeff i know the colours for the ammo boxes jerry cans/water tanks at least. I'm still looking for colour information related to the "software" (duffel bag, sleeping bag, slepping mat, alice pack and so on).

References don't have to be onethousand percent correct of course because due to following altering techniques and variation.









Like i said about Jeff but it helps pretty much. I can start painting the ammo boxes now which brings me and the model more forward.

Hi Bernd

At least here's the Tamiya paint # to use as per the painting guide on the box :

Alice packs, Butt packs, Duffel bags, tarp & tent + the canvas part of the folding cots : XF-62 or XF-49
Sleeping bags : XF-63
Sleeping mats : XF-20
As you said, I guess other references could be used as well (IIRC, medium size Alice packs can be seen in Woodland camo)...

HTH

Frenchy

That's the information i was looking for. Thank you Frenchy! Do you have a suggest for the tension belts/lashing also? Should be a brown tone i guess.

You're welcome. I guess it should be fine



HTH

Frenchy

I forgot about the ammo boxes. Any suggestions for these? Looks like something like olive on photos but i have a real 20mm box here which is painted blue.

You're looking at greens,greens and more shades of greens...

I'm using Olive drab by Vallejo (and humbrol much earlier) for ammo boxes, go as straight from the can (dark) then clear gloss, then darken by washing with oils into the crevices, then gloss again, then clear flat ...and then lighten/fade with weathering process- I do it by pigments but you can do it with really thinned down "sand" tones.
However, for variation, go lighter for some (worn) by adding a drop of sand/khaki or brown, also add lots of scratches, stains.. Go darker for others (newer boxes) a tiny bit of smoke or dark grey..

Same Olive drab for tarps, duffels and general packs but you'd want to go a little more khaki or brown..by mixing a bit of the other paints.

Sleeping mats are a lighter green, somewhat hint of lime or blue (someone here knows the answer.

MOLLE or other camo packs, go stark colors if you're painting, if not use camo decals and lighten up by weathering.

Straps..be it on MOLLE, packs, or lashing types..there are a range of colors usually on the khaki side- lighter color than most gear.

Sleeping bags, go dark black grey, lighten the straps a bit.

Blend everything a little with yup "sand" color by diluted paint or pigments...same as you would the tank..

Hope this helps..and not too messy..230am here.

Follow the basic rules of colors and finish it with your style...to each his own..

See my AAV, Humvee,Stryker and M1 at my picasa album for more reference https://picasaweb.google.com/114041413216204780388

Ammo cans :

20mm :



7.62mm :


But sometimes these cans can be sprayed over :


HTH

Frenchy