101 Airborne WW2 Uniform Colors

Okay, here are the line of mm colors:

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/stuff_eng_colorcharts_testors_map.htm

and here is the most helpful source I've found:

http://www.usarmymodels.com/guidetopainting.html

Hope that helps.

I would also recommend this website. It's historian Mark Bandos website on the 101st.

http://www.101airborneww2.com/index.html

thanks for your help everyone

You also might want to check out www.atthefront.com. They're a reenactor/film repro outfit and they've got a whole diatribe on WWII US uniform colors (what's proper khaki, etc). I actually owned an original 17th Airborne jump jacket at one point and it was definitely khaki in color. My repro is pretty close to what the original was, and I got it from At the Front.

The color of the uniform really depends on what time period you want your figs in. For the D-day drops, the 101st and 82nd wore a kind of tanish color while for the market garden and through the rest of the war they had that green-khaki color. I found that MM sac-bomber tan looks great as the greener color and any kind of darker tan is fine for the other one.

Ok, Here's some visual reference.

This is my section at C&D canal in 2001. That's me second from the left, wearing an M-1942 jump jacket. To the left of me is my section SSGT, wearing an M-41 field jacket and to the right is one of his team leaders, wearing an M-43 field jacket. The remainder of the section is wearing a mix of M-41 and M-41 Arctic jackets. Trousers are either M-1942 Mountain trousers (very similar to jump pants in some respects) or M-1943 field pants (what the airborne troops modified in August of 1944 by adding cargo pockets).



They are all wearing M-2 jump helmets (except me, of course, but I'm a $@$^! officer ) You can clearly see the tan shade for the jump jacket here and the definite green of the M-43 field jacket.

I've got plenty of photos, so please feel free to email me!

So, what mm color would that tan be equivalent to?

For small scale figures I use humbrol Matt 94. Then give it a light brown wash. Works pretty good for pre Market Garden uniforms. Good luck.

Any idea how that translates to MM or PS?

I've eyeballed the M-42 Jump suit as equivalent to MM's RAF Middlestone, but then again, I was using the new TSAR Mod II system to figure it.