paint ratios & following directions

Hi MM -

With no percentage values shown, then I take it they intend for you to adjust the amount of one that you add to another, to reach the desired color you are looking for. For example, if someone is painting something to appear as newly painted, the color would be brighter and clean.

If it's something that has been around for a long time and sun faded/dirty, it would be lighter and less bright. So refer to box art or check on line for photos, when possible. Most of my painting requires me to make my own decisions, as to what I think looks right for a color. A lot of variables can influence the final decision for a colors/mixing ratio.

Good luck with it.

Patrick 

It's your preferance as the artist. They are the colors needed to achieve a satisfactoty match, but it is up to you exactly the color value.

Typical Tamiya color call outs and I hate them. I’d rather skip the paint ratio and go the FS color call outs. 

BST is correct. That's a pretty suspect set of paint directions, and in particular mixing Khaki and Olive Green will get you fish poop.

Questions like "what're the right colors to use for a USMC M151/M825 with TOW" will get you answers, in particular on places like Armorama.

Look up the MERDC colors and patterns for a M151. Then find a photo of one you like and want to model. The most commonly seen schemes were the temperate verdant (dark green 34079, field drab 30118 with black shadow and sand 30277 highlights), and gray desert (sand 30277, field drab 30118, with black shadow and earth yellow 30257 highlights). But the tropical verdant and temperate summer  were often seen as well. 

Okay - thanks all!!  a watershed of info.  Ive never heard of MERDC before and that was a good bit too!  The 1st site i looked at mentioned the difference between canned (model)paint colors and the appropriate(real) color - and there was(is) a difference.  So, as usual, boils down to correctness vs artisit intrperetation.....  FWIW, I've concentrated on the Marine color version vs army.  Havent verified the difference in real life yet, but on the box it looks to be different.

The Marines and Army used the same MERDC colors and patterns. The Army though, being larger, saw a lot more variation from the official patterns. Not to mention being stationed in more varied climates. The Marines tended to use less of the available color schemes. 

All that aside, the MERDC paints weathered bigtime. Lots of fading and color shift with age for most of the colors. 

stikpusher

The Marines and Army used the same MERDC colors and patterns. The Army though, being larger, saw a lot more variation from the official patterns. Not to mention being stationed in more varied climates. The Marines tended to use less of the available color schemes. 

All that aside, the MERDC paints weathered bigtime. Lots of fading and color shift with age for most of the colors. 

 

Interesting.  I chose Marine just bc the color on the box.  I haven't verifired, but this is what they show. Sorry for the out of focus.

No worries about the photos. Not to get too into depth here, but let’s just say that there was lots of variation from the official MERDC patterns between all the users. 

The basic idea is that it could be altered easily to match a change in area location or season. Example: The Marines would deploy to somewhere active like Norway or somewhere  tropical like Philippines or Thailand and replace the Field Drab with white or Medium Green as needed, then repaint when they returned to home station. But the repaints may not be done to the book pattern. 

The US Army’s 8th Division while stationed in Germany usually overpainted the sand highlights with black, so they were only in a three tone pattern. 

When I was stationed at Ft Polk most of our vehicles had the summer temperate version of the scheme with light green instead of the field drab color. But a small percentage of our vehicles had the winter temperate with the field drab color.  Ideally all were supposed to be in one scheme or the other depending upon the time of year. In reality it did not happen, and due to the usual greenery of Louisiana, the summer scheme was fine year round. The M901s in my company used the MERDC colors in a pattern with the highlights and shadow that was nothing like what the regs dictated.

Here’s a good site with more in depth info and photos about the MERDC stuff

https://sites.google.com/site/merdccamo/home

That's all such useful information. Bookmarked that site for sure.

MM I'm going to suggest that the box art is meaningless. Using those illustrations on the site, you can identify the scheme in photos and probably find more complete walk-arounds.

Stikpusher knows his stuff. He doesn't just pop off info, he always has good sources.

GMorrison

That's all such useful information. Bookmarked that site for sure.

MM I'm going to suggest that the box art is meaningless. Using those illustrations on the site, you can identify the scheme in photos and probably find more complete walk-arounds.

Stikpusher knows his stuff. He doesn't just pop off info, he always has good sources.

 

Yep - Roger that.  All good info from experienced source.  Love this chat stuff!!  Thanks all.  Another lesson learned - its a good day.