We go to all the trouble to get every nut and bolt accurate, so I can't imagine that we just "eye-ball" the color when painting. Yes, I understand fading and paints applied at the unit level will vary.

I'm working on building a vehicle of every major color variant in the Cold War... this solid Green is my last one.. I have one in MASSTER (my favorite), MERCD, even Dual Tex and NATO... Just need the damn right color for an old M60.



To me, painting is the biggest reward when building... it makes trudging through assembling redundant and rather boring road wheels and suspension worth it in the end!

I know that when MERDC came along, the factories painted everything in the base coat Forest Green FS 30479... and then before that there was the MASSTER camo.. I have all the FS for those colors... but what about before this?

Everyone refers to the color as Olive Drab, but from my experience in rebuilding real military vehicles (I restore M151s) that there are lots of versions that people all call Olive Drab.

I also know that pre camo and the era of large white adhesive stars, that it was a semi-gloss, and even shinned up with oil or diesel fuel for a spiffy look.

So what I'm trying to figure out is what was the standard color that the old, first M60's were painted when they came out of the factory? Photos from that era are unreliable as the colors aren't true, and most are in B&W... but it does seem that they were pretty dark.

My M151's I build are newer M151A2s and I either paint them in new NATO 3 color CARC or the older 4 color MERDC. The old timers that rebuild other jeeps just do WWII stuff so they are clueless about early Cold War colors from Germany.

I scoured the forums... it seems that some people suggest the color for Japanese Defense Force, and others have some proprietary mix of various Olive Drab and Dark Greens... I'm not looking for the Vietnam painted for tactical, but the In-Garrison color.

For what its worth.. in my pursuit of Cold War colors, here's my MASSTER camo M60A1... I love these colors!





And of course, no US vehicle in Germany would be complete without the warning beacon! Keeping those pesky VW beetles away on those tight German roads!

I was in Germany in 1973 when we first converted the solid OD vehicles to the MASSTER scheme.

One thing I've seen time and time again is SIGNIFICANT debate about what is the "real" OD color and whose paint is the closest match.

What seems to come out of all the debate is that while there may have been an FS number called out, in actual practice the color varied all over the place. In some cases it was lighter since it faded and in others I've heard that some local commanders not liking the FS color added black to make it darker. And I've also seen a whole lot of variety when it comes to whether the paint is flat, or a bit semi-glossy.

Personally I've pretty much settled on the Tamiya XF-62 OD and really don't worry about it too much.

Here's my bottom line on the subject: We're talking about vehicles from the period of about 1950 or so through 1973, that's a 23 year spread, and over hundreds of thousands of vehicles all over the world.

I'd paint your vehicles in a shade which you believe from research, photos and your own eye that you're comfortable with.

Only a FOOL would insist that your shade is "wrong" because I'll guarantee that SOMEWHERE a vehicle matched that one exactly!

Thanks for the reassurance. I'm just about ready to paint, I feel a lot better about it now. I was wavering between MASSTER and old OD. Since I already have an old A1 in MASSTER I'll go with solid OD.

The solid colors are smoother to shadow and tint than the multicolor. I've gone to a lot of trouble for accuracy on this M60 so the solid color will show it off better I think.

Thanks again!