VietNam soldier

Plymonkey's right. The helmet covers are definitely bluish.
As far as the ERDL camo pattern, there were actually three different "shades" developed for use in Vietnam. The Green Dominant was the most widely used and was well suited for jungle use. It starts with a lime-green base and has two shades of darker green and OD with some black thrown in. I've done the DML recon marines team in Green dom ERDLs as a LRRP team from N Company 75th Rangers. Sadly, they're somewhere boxed up in one of my storage facilities and I haven't seen em in 4 years.

The second pattern was the "Brown Dominant" which was optimized for the highlands of Vietnam. Same basic pattern, but it substituted tan and medium brown for the OD and lime green. The Forest green was retained to keep some green in the pattern. They look like really faded BDUs.

The final pattern is the so-called "Delta" pattern because it was to be used down in the Mekong Delta. It was a mix of the Green and Brown dom patterns, so it was about a 50-50 split between greens and browns.

Getting back to helmet covers for a second, the ERDL camo helmet cover was developed during the Vietnam war, but DID NOT get overseas in time to see action. The earliest dated ERDL cover I've seen was dated 1975.

Oh, by the way, the figures in the above DML Tet 68 set are Marines. You can tell by their M-52 and 55 flak jackets

I'm home now, so if you need scans of the proper material shades, lemme know!

Ditto for me too.

I use Humbrol 94 Desert Tan (or brown, can never remember, it's 94 anyway) and make a green by adding black and then some white to lighten it appropriately. If I need to add a touch of blue or yellow then I do that too. The Shades varried considerably from more blue tint to more lime so you have some room to play around.

The Helmet cover has to be as Cobrahistorian described it. I've never seen any pics of modern BDU camo on a Vietnam era helmet and using it on a Vietnam figure is a pet peave of mine. I start with a very lime green base, made using a variation of the above uniform color, with a touch of blue, and paint the whole surface with that color. There are three green tones for the leaf pattern with the lighter two only differing slightly, the one being just a shade darker. I add some blue to the base to darken it and make the first leaf patterns, which are bubbly rather than splintery, reminicent of the old WWII Marine camo pattern. Then I add more blue still, just a touch though, as the middle tone only needs to varry enough to differentiate it from the light light leaf tone. Then I add more blue still (and maybe some yellow or even a touch of black if it's getting too blue and losing it's greeness) and do the final leaf patterns. These I do sparingly as the lighter tones are the most prevalant. I've found that the brown, which is a very red brown, almost light rust or even a tannish olive drab or even orange on some examles, often only has a single splotch with maybe a tiny splinter somewhere. On my dad's old cover there is just the one, and examples I used to see at the surplus store are show a similar trend. There is also a "winter" pattern on the reverse side, using similar variances of tan-brown that are on the dull red side of the chart.

You can also use the ERDL camo Jungle Utility pattern. It looked much like the modern BDU, only a little more bubbly of a pattern and the greens were more blue, the brown being on the red side, with a lime green or tan base. The black splinters seen on todays BDUs were also present, much as they appear today. I believe the tan based version was made specifically for USMC special ops units origianlly (not sure on my source for that info, it goes back a few years), but both varriations were used by all branches present in SE Asia. I have an example of the green base version that had substantial repairs made using the tan based version. Lots of room for evperimentation there.

I agree with Cobrahistorian. I also start with Medium Green and weather from there. Also use OD for web gear and ammo pouches etc. Medium green for rucksacks and dufflebags too.

Hey guys,

Vietnam-era jungle fatigues were not Olive Drab. The proper shade was OG106, or olive green. That may seem like a semantic argument, but the difference in shade is akin to the difference between an olive and a lime. VERY distinct. I usually start with Medium Green as a base for my Vietnam figures. After several washes with oils and various shadings, the Med Green weathers enough to look appropriate for an OG106 uniform. Web gear from this period is the same shade as late WWII and Korean war equipment, OD shade 7. The only exception to this is the lightweight or tropical rucksacks, which were made of OG106 shade nylon and tended to have brown trim around the edging of all pockets and straps.

Helmet covers were made from the USMC "Mitchell" pattern camouflage and were a light green-blue base with green and light brown oak leaf patterns. These tended to fade VERY quickly and they tended to take on a similar, if slightly bluer shade than the OG106 jungle uniform.

If you have any further questions, I can scan in some of the uniforms in my collection to give you a better idea of the proper hues. Give me a few days to get back home, since I'm on spring break right now, but I should be able to scan things by monday.

Hope that helps!

For figures, I use Testors Model Master 2051 Faded Olive Drab and for equipment, I use Testors Model Master Olive Drab FS 34087
Ch

Welcome Nacho!

Here's a good drawing of troops invoved in the Tet Offensive...

... you can get a good idea of the all around OD motif.

Take care,
Frank

Unifroms were issued in OD, but quickly faded, boots were black with OD sides, belt was black, web gear was OD