Hello again all. I am trying desprately to reproduce the reflective surface of modern armor periscopes. At one angle they are one color, and a different color at another angle. What I would like from my friends here are some good pictures of the different colors that they have at the different angles. I have found a few on the web and some books but could use some better close-ups.

Also is ther ever a time when the reflective surface isn't casing off different colors, and if so, what color would the periscope be at that point? Basically the natural color of it in not so many words. Thanks for the help all.

Modern vision ports, periscopes and optics have a lazer defracting coating on them. When the light hits it, it has a pinkish-orange reflelction. A friend took some photos of the back of my M3A1 and M2A2 Bradley. The A1 did not have the coating and the A2 did. I'll see if he can e-mail them to me and I'll try to get them uploaded.

Coating prevents a lazer from being used as a weapon. Emit the lazer towards enemy positions and the vehicle's own optics would transmit the blinding lazer light to the gunner's eyes.

Is this coating applied to the glass or is part of the glass? I am lost on this one

It is a part of the glass that is manufactured this way. Looks like a pinkish-orange mirror finish, almost like a cop's shades.

The colour is from an optical coating. if you have a modern set of binoculars you will see something similar. To simulate it, try using remnants from colour negatives.

In some of the pictures I have seen they also often have a blue or purple shad to them also, maybe thats when light isn't hitting them. That may be more common with range finders or other weapon systems glass. Is the blue/purple more common on those than the vision ports? I have been testing a lot of things trying to duplicate it and I feel I am getting pretty close, just need some better pics to make sure I get the colors right, or as close as possible. Thanks for the replies.

This is a very difficult finish to replicate. I have seen a passable effort using Tamiya clear colors, and I plan to try it that way myself. The color change that you get from different angles is virtually impossible to duplicate in scale, I think. My impulse is to just choose a color you like, and duplicate it using dyed Future or Tamiya clear colors.