Hi, my name is Brian. I usually build ship models, but I thought I'd give armor a shot. I built a Tiger tank and I really enjoyed it. So I thought I'd buy a few more armor kits and I was curious what color paints are the most common on various tanks. I have a huge selection of grays around the house, but obviously, they won't be used much on tanks. So if anyone could give me a list of countries and the colors they used, I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

Brian

Hey Brian. Welcome to the treadhead side of the hobby. If you go down to the LHS and check out the tamiya line for their greens browns and Panzer dark yellow and the variaous sand colors, you can mix and match up just about any country's camo scheme. I use tamiya paints almost exclusively. I have tried the other paints, valejo, testors, and the others and have found none matching what I can do with Tamiya's colors. Still experimenting with what's out there will be the only way to0 find the right color for what You want the vehicle to look like, and that's part ofthe fun!!
Happy Hunting!!

Hello Brian,

I have to agree...Tamiya XF-Series is the only paint i use for the airbrush for armor. There are several different types out there now and sometimes, Like ME, you just have to get what the local HS has, but lucky for me my HS does. I only use Lacquer thinner in the paint as well. The X-20A thinner just dont do it for me. If you shop online then theres a bunch to choose from. I use Vallejo to paint small details like tools, rifles, radios and the like. Tamiya doesnt lend itself to brush painting very well. Anyways, that my 2 cents...HTH and Good luck

Gary

I find Tamiya paints are the best, for airbrushing. MM enamels work well, but require thorough cleaning of the ab before switching to acrylics. Dark Yellow, Desert Yellow, Red Brown, and German Grey are good paints to cover most of WWII.

Hi Brian, welcome to armor.

I'll add just a little to what the others have said. All colors are Tamiya, but I can't remember all the XF numbers

For German armor, depending on the time frame and theatre, you'll need:
German Gray
Dark Yellow
Desert Yellow
Red Brown
Olive Green

For Allied:
Olive Drab
Dark Yellow (to fade the OD)


And generic colors for doing interiors, road wheels, exhausts, fire extinguishers, primer, etc...
Khaki
White
Black
silver
Red

Now, if you're going to get into adding figures, that opens up a whole new ballgame......

HTH,
Steve

Hello! Alongside Tamiya don't forget about lifecolor, or vallejo.


The ral colors for these are available on the armor forum.
The Germans used pre 1943 German grey, sometimes with a overspread of signalbraun.43 onwards dark yellow, with olive green and red brown overspread.
For north Africa initially khakibrun was used, later replaced with sand grey and light brown .

For soviet armor 4bo green is the standard color although there is a lot of speculation as to the true shade. Various olive greens can be used here. The lighter tanks usually wore a lighter green to the heavies .

U.s armor wore standard olive drab, camo was not usually on the cards, there were occasional schemes though, Google would be a handy tool here.