What was the colour of barrels in Africa?

A lot of barrels were black if I remember right if they came from British stocks, as they probably were bought  from Union Oil Co. or the other large oil company, Standard (US Lend-Lease) depending on the timeframe.  You could mix them up as being recovered from a British outpost or convoy.

XF-60 for desert and the XF-65 for general purposes. I dare say with the shortages in Africa there would have been both because they would have taken anything they could get there hands on!

Actually with German armor you're not terribly far off, just expand the statement to include yellow and you're there.

I'd wager, (assuming they're just stock standard fuel barrels and not something mounted on the tank) that they're green as has been suggested, if they're to be mounted on the tank, try putting "mud" over them as it was a common practice for German crews in Africa to camouflage vehicles and objects in mud before repainting.

I'd also wager that troop's canteens and other objects were relatively untouched, too much work for too little gain.

*smacks bondoman* Son, don't you know by now that the rule is Paint Everything Gray???

Oh, wait, that's ships. Wrong forum!

All the pictures I have, they are black and white.

Fuel barrels were normally Ordanance green or Ordanance Tan, i use Tamiya XF-11 for the green and XF-60 for the tan. I can't imagine they would go to the effort of painting them.. I am not aware of water bottles being painted. I paint the cup XF-11 and the bottle XF-10