Ok guys, I know this topic has been beaten to death on nearly every modelling forum in the known universe, but bare with me here. I'm working on a review of AK Interactive's OIF/OEF weathering set and i'm a little stuck on some issues regarding the base colour.

So AK state that their acrylic colour is a match for CARC Tan FS 33446, however from what I have been reading this FS colour is not actually correct for OIF vehicles, but instead was used only during ODS? Is this the case? If it is, do I therefore assume that modern US armour and MRAP's are painted a different colour. Also where vehicles from early OIF painted a different shade of tan to modern MRAPs operating out in A-stan? Looking at pictures of some 3ID armour in 2003 time, they definitely seem to be painted a much lighter tan colour compared to say M-ATV's currently in A-stan.

Any help on this matter would be much appreciated.

the tan is the same wether its afghanistan or iraq the only time it looks darker is when its weathered bit its the same shade of tan

I look forward to your review and your thoughts on this color hopefully this is the best match for Modern U.S Vehicles however after being around them for the last four months I can honestly say that no two are exactly the same for example you could park an MRAP MATV and a Buffalo and maybe throw in a M1078 and they would all be varying shades of the original color Obviously this depends on how long they have spent in theatre but my mind boggles every day when I check these vehicles out and no two are the same shade but not by much difference, perhaps if there was a good abundance of color photos perhaps Panzer grey was the same.

Cheers cuny12

Rob,

I'll give you the FS number in a bit

Ok, so all US vehicles have been painted exactly the same tan colour from before 2003 up until now? But is that tan colour FS33446?

Of course I appreciate colours will fade and look different from one vehicle to the next, the trouble i'm having is the AK colour appears to be too grey and stoney in tone, and from what i've read online, the colour this is supposed to match was a tan colour used on ODS armour painted in Saudi Arabia....

Hey Rob,
I dunno if the AK color is supposed to be matched to the ODS color or the current CARC sand... however you're right, it looks way too greyish and IMO has nothing in common with the real color for either era...
I also test-painted and weathered the color next to my usual mix of tamiya colors and I gotta say that even though my color might not be a perfect match to the real color AK's interpretation is nowhere near a light sand tone as mine and moreover as what the customer would expect it to be...
furthermore I really doubt it's actually an airbrush color as it says on the bottle...
did you notice the strange smell? it reminds me of dispersion paint used to tone down wall paints... also it reacted strangely to white spirits, the washings I applied (all AK stuff) attacked the paint and left brush strokes on the surface (I mean light traces in the color itself)...
also when I tried to clean my airbrush the color started clumping together when I used my usual airbrush cleaners (revell) which usually works fine with any kind of color. after that I tried Gunze thinners and Acetone but that only caused the color to clump even more... I ended up scraping the remains off with an old hard brush and a spattle...
both OIF specific weathering products supplied by AK did work fine for me though, just the base color was a real dissapointment for me...
anyways, coincidentially I got to compare it to the grey-sand spots on some MARPAT pants and it looks to be a perfect match for that color.. so it might come in handy for figure painting...

Cheers, Max

Thanks for taking the time to reply Max. As AK state the colours is meant to be a match for OIF/OEF vehicles I guess thats what they were attempting, but yes like you I feel the colour does not match. The really difficult thing is trying to determine what the correct colour is based on photos of real vehicles, due to photography conditions etc its very hard to tell what the correct shade should be, but looking at quite clear pictures of M-ATV's in AK's book its clear the tan shade is much lighter and has more of a desert yellow shade to it.

Im just having a hard time trying to work out whether FS33446 is an ODS tan colour and whether what AK have ended up with here is a better match for ODS armour than current stuff.

I haven't had any issues actually using the colour, and found it easy to use straight out of the bottle without the need to thin it. As you said as well the other two weathering products are very good.

I haven't built IDF stuff in years, but actually this colour doesn't look far off the early IDF stone colour...?

I totally agree with Rob. I have tryed the new AKA OIF colour, and it don't match with the real thinks for me.

Here a pic from my test :

My 2 cents... I have been using Model Master "Modern Desert Sand" #337722 for years. I lived and worked on US vehicles painted in Sand CARC and it looks perfect to me. I decant it and shoot it through my airbursh.

Hi

At this moment I´m painting a M198 gun with AK, after watch a lot of pictures, my opinion the paint is too grey/stone.

I wash my airbrush after use the AK paint with Ajax Cristal for windows (with ammonia).

Regards

I will throw in my two cents here as well. I have always used Testors Model Master enamel Sand FS33531 for modern CARC Sand. It looks just like the vehicles I have served on.

I have not used the AK stuff, but from what I am seeing, I agree with the others that it is too gray.

http://akinteractive.foroactivo.com/t455p60-mother-of-all-rigs-building-the-hobbyboss-het-m1070-m1000

Some on this topic. I've never used this AK color but I was counting on it to be an easy way to achieve this particular color. Pity it's not. I'll keep on using my LifeColor Italian Sand/Buff mix, plus some filters. Good to know that the other products are useful, though.

I second the FS33531 as being the most accurate modern sand color. A word of caution though, it does look like a brand new vehicle when first sprayed. It does take a fair bit of dirtying up to make the vehicle look used, but since the original color is so close to CARC sand, the weathering looks more believable. The current A-stan vehicles, I believe, are painted with the same color as were those early in OIF. But as mentioned earlier, no matter the base color nature changes those colors very quickly through sun bleaching, the colors of the dirt/dust, etc. There is also the VERY important item of camera color balance. That's the hardest of all; telling what colors the camera sensor saw, versus the colors it reproduced.
But I'd definitely go with FS33532 first, then weather it heavily with chalk pastel dust to get the hues and tints you're after. Good luck!