101 Airborne WW2 Uniform Colors

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.

Any idea how that translates to MM or PS?

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

thanks for your help everyone

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

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

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.