I'm coming back to the hobby and restocking in preparation for some Vietnam armour.

What's the consensus on the base colour for US armour or vehicles in general in the region? I'm tempted to go with NATO green but even allowing for old photos, dirt etc on the vehicle the colour seems darker.

Has anybody got the definitive answer?

Thank you all.

US Army tanks were a semigloss olive drab that appeared darker than normal. USMC tanks were a dark forest green color.
I'd use Tamiya OD XF 62 with a semigloss finish for US Army and Tamiya JGSDF OD XF 74 for the Marines.

Thank you.

Vietnam-era US Army vehicles were painted semigloss Olive Drab (the shiny finish was allegedly easier to decontaminate in a nuclear or chemical attack, but it also looked "smarter" than flat OD). The pigment was the same as flat OD, but the shiny binder made it "read" much darker. The chip was FS 24087 in the old FS-595 color book, but current editions have renumbered the chip FS 24084. The chip is damn near black in the book, so you're better off looking at photos of full sized vehicles. Just to complicate things, some generals ordered that OD be mixed with black, simply because they liked the look, so some units were darker than others. Late in the war, a new color that better reflected solar infrared radiation and kept the interior about 10 degrees cooler was tried, but that shade has not been officially recorded, as far as I know. Reportedly, it was lighter.

Beware of some model companies' FS 34087 OD paint, as it is matched to a later version of the chip that was meant only for helicopters (Testors Model Master and Humbrol both offer this shade). It is warmer and lighter than the vehicle color. Good for a Huey, but wrong on an M113 or M48A3.

Tamiya's OD is the best match out of the bottle, though it may be lightened a bit with German Dark Yellow for scale effect.

Wow! Excellent answer, you get an A! Thank you.


So moving on a little, I'm going to need some "dirt", how red was the earth? Some photos show it really red, others show it with a red tint, I guess dry earth would be a little lighter in colour.

If it makes a difference & I guess it might, I'm thinking of the Ia Drang area. Is there a good base colour or a particular set of pigments perhaps?

I always wondered why the Hue's were a different OD color , you just answered my Q .