Hi All,

British 8th Army/North African Desert Color

Can you advise me on the proper color for the British 8th Army/North African campaign vehicles? The reason I ask is a discrepancy of the desert color.

Recently I read that the sand color was a whitish-buff called "stone". Model Master brand paint makes it.

Three other brands of paint, Humbrol, Tamiya and Polly Scale, produce an 8th Army color called "desert yellow", which is a yellowish tan.

I would like to know which is the most accurate color, or how to mix it?

Have a look through this, it should help.

http://www.mafva.org/resources.asp

British desert colours are a very complicated subject and many of the available paints are based on imagination rather than research.

Hi Drader,

Thanks for the URL.

One thing I have finally learned in my quest for the
holy grail of 'the real, correct color', is that said
color is frequently "all of the above".

Drives perfectionist like me to distraction, but realizing this is
comforting.

Hello Fred, I just posted some pictures of my interpretation of desert yellow on a bedford, which happens to be more tan than yellow. It is contrasted with a german anti-tank gun which is more desert yellow than tan...who knows! Godd luck!

In my modest opinion, you can find some of the colors you are looking for in the Vallejo series:
- 976- Buff
- 912- Tan Yellow
- 819- Iraqui Sand
- 977- Desert Yellow
- 847- Dark Sand
Cheers and good modelling,
Pratto