Help with colors of US Army WWII figures

I was looking at some infantry pictures for the same thing, and I determined that it would be ok to use tamiya Kahki on the trousers and Kahki drab on the shirt. I will be trying this real soon. if you decide to, let me know if it works.

Jesse,

I started collecting old uniforms and gear to help get those details right, but it's a bit expensive. A good short-term solution (and much cheaper) would be to look at the following web sites.

http://atthefront.com/
http://wwiiimpressions.com/

These companies make reproduction uniforms based on the original specs. They have a pretty good selection of items from the ETO and Pacific. Bear in mind that uniforms and gear were manufactured by thousands of companies. Even though they all followed the same specs, it's almost impossible to find two items that match in color. My advice is to look at these sites, establish a good basic color for each item, and use several variations on that basic color to give each figure some individuality. You might also try re-enacting group web sites for color photos.

PS: Don't forget to weather liberally. Dust and mud are constant companions to military ops and after a few days in the field, we get pretty filthy.

Happy landings...
Doug Welter

What service and theater are looking to paint?

I'm a WWII Living Historian as well as a modeler.
Check out our website at www.members.tripod.com/fssflhg We have a bunch of color photos and a lot of us have original (not repro) gear. WWII Impressions and At The Front also have great websites. For a good look at web gear, try www.bayonetinc.com

Hope that helps!

Here is a fine resource for getting US Army Ranger uniform colors right:

http://5thrangers.deadlydozen.net/uniforms.cfm

Ok I am doing a Tamiya kit, and I did the pants Tamiya flat earth XF 52 and the shirt darkyellow XF 60. Try that, it looks great. seriously

WW2 army uniforms varied...

Shirts were an OD wool, some are on the green side, others tend toward brown.

Wool trousers are the same way.

HBTs (Herring Bone Twills) are generally green, and much lighter in tone than the wools.

M1941 Jackets are Khaki, and M1943 jackets are OD #7 green.

Leggings are khaki or green, as is most web gear.

You really have to determine what time frame, and what unit, you intend to portray...Airborne is entirely different than Infantry... and you won't find too much OD#7 in the early war units, such as the 1st, 2nd, 26th, 29th, 45th, but you'll see alot of OD#7 in units like the 44th, 79th, 80th etc...

PS: You wanna get real screwy with uniforms, try reenacting 1st Special Service Force like CobraHistorian...(yea, we've fought side by side for a number of years).

Jeff Herne
Director, NJAHOF
www.njahof.org

Yeah, but then again, Jeff likes that really LATE war OD#7 web gear....

And SSF uniforms are COOL!

Hey now,

My webgear is 1942 dated khaki!!! Unless I'm wearing my M1944 rig which is, of course OD...depends.

At least I don't have fuzzy bunny collars!! :-)

J

no, you have fluffy bunny feet!

Hey, they issued double buckle boots with Mr. Floppy ears!!! LMAO.

Jeff