U.S. Armor color

If by Gulf War you are referring to Operation Desert Shield/Storm in '90-'91, there was no FS color.  Most vehicles were quickly repainted as they arrived in Saudi Arabia with locally procured sand colored paints.  Many of them were cheap, latex house paint and didn't last long.  It chipped and peeled a lot.  So you can basically use any sand/tan color.

Currently, the official color is CARC Tan 686A FS33446.  There is no model color that matches this exactly.  Additionally, the color fades quickly and doesn't look like FS color for very long.  The best model paint color is FS 33531 Sand.

Thank you for the information. I've heard that from other people but really didn't believe them. Hearing from you confirms it all.

I thought 24th ID had their stuff pre painted in CARC Sand. I have seen photos of them loading up before deploying to Saudi and their stuff was fully pre painted in Sand.

Stik - you are correct.  I believe they were the only unit, or one of a few, that was already painted sand.  FS33531 Sand is still the best color to use for them as well.

The Model Master US Army/Marine Gulf Armor Sand is a good color to use for the vehicles painted in Saudi.  It does not represent CARC Sand at all.   FS 33531 is still the best for modern CARC Sand in my opinion.

My next build is a Merkava I from Tamiya...I've seen "sand" Merkavas and "gray" Merkavas. So, what is the difference?

garzonh

My next build is a Merkava I from Tamiya...I've seen "sand" Merkavas and "gray" Merkavas. So, what is the difference?

Not US Armor, but OK. 

Over time the Israeli army has changed the color for ground vehicle and helicopters based on what they think blends in better.  A Merk 1 should be a darker sandy-green color.  Testors Model Master Armor Sand looks good on it.

Yeah, their stuff was painted sand as they were part of the old RDF. Some of their Brads had flat black bands painted vertically.  

The only stuff in "RDF" pre painted desert schemes was the 24th ID stuff in overall CARC sand and the Marine pre positioned stuff, still in Desert MERDC. Most everything else was in NATO Tri Color Camo and re painted in theater later on.

Yeah Stik, I was trying to reply to your post from 17 June referencing the 24th ID. (I fat-fingered the response), I was at Fort Stewart for a Warfighter Exercise in 1990 when the 24th ID got the orders to move their equipment to the port of Savannah. It was quite a sight seeing them load their tracks with service ammo and motor march down the highway toward Savannah. T. Ellis

That must have been quite a sight!

It really was, you knew it was the real deal when you saw the crews in the motor pool loading black tipped service ammo instead of the light blue ones, live TOWs and demo.  They fully expected to go into battle when they got there.