Abrams/Bradley color ?

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Do you want to use enamels or acrylics? In either case Model Master makes an exact colour match. It's US Army/Marines Gulf War. That's the actual name of the colour, and it's an exact match. I'm using that for my M1 abrams, and it's great. They make it in both enamel and acrylics.

On that paint note, what's a good colour for the interior of an M1 tank?

I'm in the Army, and have actually gotten to be inside an Abrams. The inside, when brand new is painted white. However, as you can imagine very quickly it becomes pretty dirty with mud tracked in, sand, oil, etc. So after some wear and tear it becomes a dirty white, even a light gray. Here is a good site for some refrence photos, http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m1.htm. Kinda dated, but still some good stuff. The equipment and various things inside the turrent are ususaly painted black or sometimes even olive drag (So I'm told, never seen it)

Thanks for your post about the color. I'm going to have to look into that. IS that color available at a hobby store or do you have to order it?

Thanks again.

I find the Testor's Model Master (MM) US Army/Marines Gulf War to be too dark. I use MM enamel Sand and then dry brush with some MM Armor Sand. Comes out looking just like my vehicles in the motor pool and how they looked in Iraq. Here are some examples:

Hmm, you're right, yours definitely are a much lighter tone.
Thanks for the link and the info MarinR00. All of the model master paints that I and HeavyArty spoke of are readily available in most good hobby shops.
Just one more quesion:
The links used to connect the treads on an M1 tank, what colour are they? Every model I see has them painted red...
Is this the standard colour, or do they just rust over that much?

Most tank tracks are bare metal where there are no rubber pads. The metal rusts very quickly in most environments, especially if water and dew are there. Tracks will get a layer of surface rust overnight. But, in desert environs, the rusting is less. To model this, I paint the tracks a gunmetal color, then drybrush with a couple different shades of rust. Then seal it all with a good coat of dullcoat. Lastly, drybrush the guide teeth and sprocket teeth with gunmetal or silver. Once the track begins to move, these areas are polished to a high shine from 70 tons of friction.

I thought so. Nowhere in my references could I see the steel coloured red, so I guess I correctly assumed it was indeed rust.
Thanks!

I haven't been around that many tanks, but I don't think I ever saw red anywhere. They are def. not the standard color. I was in Britian last week on their tank, the Challenger II, and the links I saw were gray/steel/black, depending on how much wear and tear they went through. I found some good pictures you might find handy. www.army.mil offers some great, high-res shots of all sorts of armor in Iraq. Just go to the site, and find the link on the left side called "Army Images." Once there, go to page 10 for some great shots of M1s and their treds. This might be just what you are looking for. Thanks for the great help on the paints, I'm going to have to get on that.

MarinR00, glad to have you on the Darkside

actually all of our vehicles in 1st ID are still woodland, cept the brads have tan reactive armor.

Maybe I missed the boat but has anyone thought how scale effects color, and sunlight? Due to the effect of scale you should add white to your base color. I have been told 25% white is about right but I think thats a little much. The amount of sunlight a vehicle has had also lightens the paint color. I have also talked to someone about the quality of the kark paint we use on the vehicles. The paint has other functions besides camo and rust prevention. The paint must preform against chemical attack, Infrared reflection, heat resistance etc...Because of all these things, the paint is kinda crummy from an automoitve paint point of view.It chips easily, and fades quickly. How long does it take for the black on the woodland camo to fade to dark gray? Not long.