_GOTOBOTTOM
AFV Painting & Weathering
Answers to questions about the right paint scheme or tips for the right effect.
Hosted by Darren Baker, Matthew Toms
MERDC and Soviet Cold War Camo
werwulf
Visit this Community
Alberta, Canada
Joined: March 22, 2003
KitMaker: 121 posts
Armorama: 64 posts
Posted: Saturday, February 06, 2016 - 10:34 AM UTC
Hey all,
I'm working on some 1/100 scale war gaming models and need some help with camo. I'm looking for some MERDC cam instructions for the M1 Abrams, M2 Bradley and if anyone has info on Soviet cam circa 1985 that would be great help as well. I do have the tankograd book on MERDC but has no instructions just FS number so any help would be great.
Thanks in advance.
Dave
GeraldOwens
Visit this Community
Florida, United States
Joined: March 30, 2006
KitMaker: 3,736 posts
Armorama: 3,697 posts
Posted: Saturday, February 06, 2016 - 12:29 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Hey all,
I'm working on some 1/100 scale war gaming models and need some help with camo. I'm looking for some MERDC cam instructions for the M1 Abrams, M2 Bradley and if anyone has info on Soviet cam circa 1985 that would be great help as well. I do have the tankograd book on MERDC but has no instructions just FS number so any help would be great.
Thanks in advance.
Dave

The MERDC system introduced in 1974 was hopelessly complex (4-color schemes, using a selection of 12 colors, all to be applied at unit level). There were official schemes for every kind of terrain on the planet, but the idea of repainting a battalion every time it moved a few hundred miles was out of the question in the real world. By the early '80's, nearly every US Army unit was just leaving its equipment in the factory base color, FS-34079 Forest Green. It's available from Testors Model Master, though you'd need to lighten it for such small scale vehicles.
If you have your heart set on official cammo, Osprey published books on the M1 Abrams and M2 Bradley in the 1980's, which can be downloaded as e-books, or used copies can be found online. They were written by Steve Zaloga, and include color drawings of operational vehicles. More recent books have less coverage of the early color schemes.
werwulf
Visit this Community
Alberta, Canada
Joined: March 22, 2003
KitMaker: 121 posts
Armorama: 64 posts
Posted: Saturday, February 06, 2016 - 01:05 PM UTC
Most of the period pictures I've seen of REFORGER show most units still in MERDC maybe not the M1 which appear in Forrest green but surely M113's and other earlier armor. As for the ospreys they are of no use as they only give the left side view of the M1 and the M2.
trilon83
Visit this Community
Bayern, Germany
Joined: January 17, 2015
KitMaker: 9 posts
Armorama: 8 posts
Posted: Saturday, February 06, 2016 - 03:38 PM UTC
Good online resource for MERDC camo schemes:
https://sites.google.com/site/merdccamo/home
GeraldOwens
Visit this Community
Florida, United States
Joined: March 30, 2006
KitMaker: 3,736 posts
Armorama: 3,697 posts
Posted: Sunday, February 07, 2016 - 01:58 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Most of the period pictures I've seen of REFORGER show most units still in MERDC maybe not the M1 which appear in Forrest green but surely M113's and other earlier armor. As for the ospreys they are of no use as they only give the left side view of the M1 and the M2.


A Google image search for MERDC Camouflage yields plenty of diagrams. Here is the pattern for an M113, for instance:
http://www.cybermodeler.com/armor/m113/m113_profile02.shtml
tanknick22
Visit this Community
United States
Joined: February 19, 2009
KitMaker: 1,139 posts
Armorama: 1,100 posts
Posted: Sunday, February 07, 2016 - 03:49 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Hey all,
I'm working on some 1/100 scale war gaming models and need some help with camo. I'm looking for some MERDC cam instructions for the M1 Abrams, M2 Bradley and if anyone has info on Soviet cam circa 1985 that would be great help as well. I do have the tankograd book on MERDC but has no instructions just FS number so any help would be great.
Thanks in advance.
Dave


Soviet armor of the period was a overall dark green
srmalloy
Visit this Community
United States
Joined: April 15, 2012
KitMaker: 336 posts
Armorama: 298 posts
Posted: Friday, February 12, 2016 - 12:52 AM UTC

Quoted Text

By the early '80's, nearly every US Army unit was just leaving its equipment in the factory base color, FS-34079 Forest Green.


Factory base color, yes, but not always Forest Green. I remember on a trip to visit my mother in Tempe many years ago when I passed a train running parallel to I-8 headed into Arizona, and it had about a dozen flatcars, each with two M113s painted all over Earth Yellow, and the vehicles I saw at a National Guard unit in Phoenix were in the Red Desert color scheme, Earth Yellow being one of the 45%-coverage colors for that scheme. I expect that only the Arctic and the two Desert schemes would get issued in a base color other than Forest Green, though.
 _GOTOTOP