Hi all,

I've already gotten some input from Olivier Carneau on his suggested color tan for the pretty rare desert camo paint on a Leclerc Series 2 (Tamiya Desert Yellow, mixed with Flat Yellow). I know that this camo on French tank is probably something almost none of you have attempted, but I thought I'd ask for opinions from anyone who just might have an idea about Tamiya colors to mix to get a modern French camo pattern of two color tan and brown. The brown is going to be Tamiya Red Brown; I'm already set on this. But if any of you have thoughts on French desert tan, please send them along!

You should contact the modeller who built this Leclerc...

http://www.network54.com/Forum/110741/thread/1357679746/Big+Bad+and+French+-+Le+Clerc+II

Mark did a great job with his Leclerc but in my opinion the sand/tan color he applied should be more yellow.

Here are current French vehicles in the desert scheme
An old and long used Sagaie in Chad


a brand new VBHP Aravis


Olivier

Ahh - that will be mine thanks Jason

I used JGSDF Brown from Tamiya XF-72 In fact I use JGSDF Brown for nearly everything -- but thats just info as you said your using a different colour



Fot the desert yellow - Im pretty sure my main colour was actually buff about 80% with desert yellow at about 20% - maybe to light? but with weathering everything gets darker as we know.

best Mark

After reading this thread I searched through my collection of Tamiya magazines and found the French issue presenting the Desert one made by Marchus Nicolls. His rendition of the French tan is quite good after the weathering. He only used Tamiya Buff which is bit light in my opinion but the weathering process he used gave the tank the yellow hue of the actual paint.

Olivier

The french tan colour is a sand yellow colour that under the sun take an orange ton.
The brown is ... brown so don't use red-brown.

Thanks to all who responded... After all this, I think I've decided to do my Leclerc in the NATO tricolor (I promised the wife that I'd paint it in whichever of the two choices she selected...she picked NATO). But knowing myself as I do, I've been prone to getting multiple copies of kits (I have 5 Dragon M1A1 AIMs, and 2 M1A2 SEPs), so I have little doubt that this info will be extremely valuable when i inevitably build my second (or third or fourth) Leclerc.

By the way, to Mark c, a wonderful tank build and paint job!

To Stephane, I agree that the brown looks plain brown, and Tamiya Red Brown is less red than NATO Brown.

Yikes...don't call it NATO tricolour for the Leclerc scheme...you will open up a whole new can of coloured worms!!!!

Curt,
I long used Red Brown as well but recently shifted to Flat Brown and apparently the result is more convincing. Here is my VBCI with this brown.



Olivier

And how to find information on standards (FS / RAL) colors used in the French Army?

The French army do not use FS or RAL references. I have somewhere in my documentetion the references used for the 3-tone and the desert camo. Give me some time and I'll post it.

Olivier

Thanks. My Buffalo waiting

Olivier,
And NATO brown? Do you think is correct to use in french desert camouflage?

Hi again, guys. Though this post is moving away from my original point of interest (desert paint scheme for a Leclerc), I wanted to bounce some of my thoughts about the colors to use for the French tricolor scheme. I was looking on PrimePortal, and found some great images of Leclercs. I know you cannot really use pictures off the internet to establish 'true' colors, but I'm thinking that the 'brown' color in the tricolor scheme would best be duplicated by Vallejo Model Air color Middle Stone (71.031). I am still at a loss for what green to use, as the green in the photos is far brighter and 'greener' than Tamiya NATO Green or even XF-5 Flat Green. The closest I can figure out is Model Air Pale Green (71.095), possibly mixed with Model Air Duck Egg Green (71.009) to lighten it. The black I have no issues with...

I feel very comfortable (I think) with the brown tone paint selection, but the green...I have to admit I'm clueless. I've looked at all the major paint manufacturers sites to see if I could find something that looks even close. Maybe a lightened (with what?) Tamiya XF-73 JGSDF Dark Green?

Thoughts?

For anyone interested in a continuation of this thread, I've started a new one here:

http://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/205583&page=1

Hi all,
I gave some answers on the new topic by Curt.