I am planning a diorama based on the battle of 73 Easting during the Gulf War and plan on including a US M1A1 Abrams, a US M2A2 (or M3A2) Bradley and a sabot hit Iraqi T72. I’m looking for suggestions on the best paint colors to use for the various vehicles. My initial thought was to use Humbrol “light sand” but would like second opinions, especially on the T72. Also, I’m considering using a pre-shading technique for the first time. Should I just use a darker shade of the topcoat? If not, what color would be best for the basecoat?

By the way, this is the ispiration for the diorama:

http://www.military-art.com/dhm1194.htm

Any suggestions are appreciated!

Hey Merkava,

Well, I am not sure what kind of paint you normally use, but Testors Model Master makes and acrylic paint called US Army/Marine Gulf Sand, it looks pretty accurate....but in reality, when you see one AFV, and then look at another, they my not look the same color, as some AFVs were painted in the US, some were painted in the field once they got to Kuwait, and some were painted at the factory. As well some of desert schemes were painted over the NATO 3 color theme, such as the AFVs that would have come from Germany, and some were just painted the sand color from the factory, so the actual hue of the color would be different from vehicle to vehicle.

I have an M1A1 and a M2A2 here and I plan on using the above mentioned paint.....can't hurt.

BTW, here is a good link for some great pictures of the war in the gulf, some great close ups of the Abrams and Bradleys, as well as the result of a sabot hit on the Iraqi AFVs.

http://www.armorinaction.com/

Hope this helps!!

Bear in mind that desert camo can look almost white when viewed in strong sunlight, and the sun sure is strong in the Gulf! So make sure you go for a very pale colour, this will probably help the 'scale effect' of the colours too.

Better ckoice is Model Master Sand. It is lighter than thier Gulf Sand mentioned above and looks sufficiently washed out.

I have used Tamiya's Buff and it looks ok. Not as yellowish as Tamiya's Desert Yellow nor Gunze's Sandy Brown. I dunno but looking at Gunze's deck tan, might be adequate....

Merk,
Polly Scale also has a Gulf War Sand. Like mentioned before, the vehicles where painted in different places. The use of all the suggestions would simulate this.

one thing to think about.( I work for DOD , as I did then.) Many of the US AFVs were brought over green. we sprayed them with diesel , and threw sand on them, as a temporary fix, at least during the initial rush to build up. There were problems with getting new paint to stick on the old. There are still some AFVs in theatre that show green under peeling tan. We did a lot of improvising , so you will see a great variation in color,.