NATO Green

Hoth_902 · Post by **Hoth_902** » Sun Jun 21, 2020 9:49 am

So I have the Desert Sand color locked in. Now I am trying to paint up some US equipment using NATO Green. I am struggling on what is the best Color for the job. I Started with Model Masters NATO Tri Color Green. I was told it looked too dark on my Strykers. So I lightened it with white and in certain light it looks just right and in others it looks pail. I am not an art major so I am struggling on how to get it right. I have read that some people use Tamiya NATO Green.

With all that said, I will cut to the chase, What color do you use for the base coat in a NATO paint scheme? What colors did you mix if any? Also, if you could provide a picture of your work, it would be helpful.

redleg · Post by **redleg** » Sun Jun 21, 2020 10:56 am

hey Hoth, I recently switched to Tamiya NATO green for my vehicles. Here is a comparison I did when I was trying to figure out which color to use. Prior to the Tamiya I used testor's OD Green which was closer to the Field Gray color.

Hoth_902 · Post by **Hoth_902** » Sun Jun 21, 2020 11:06 am

I think the NATO green looks good. How do you feel about it? Do you think it's good for Stryker? I could not tell from your other pics.

Hoth_902 · Post by **Hoth_902** » Sun Jun 21, 2020 11:06 am

What is the brown color, NATO brown from tamiya?

redleg · Post by **redleg** » Sun Jun 21, 2020 11:19 am

I think it looks OK on the Strykers too, but I'll try to post some new pics of them tomorrow. I need to get better pics of them in some natural light.

redleg · Post by **redleg** » Sun Jun 21, 2020 11:20 am

Yeah, I just went with the Tamiya NATO color range: NATO Green, NATO Brown, and NATO Black. I have to keep things simple!

Hoth_902 · Post by **Hoth_902** » Sun Jun 21, 2020 11:26 am

Redleg,.

Yea, the natural light is where my old color turned greyish green. I looked in some old fine scale modeling magazines and they were all using NATO green for there stuff. Have to see if I can get some tomorrow.

Hoth_902 · Post by **Hoth_902** » Sun Jun 21, 2020 11:27 am

I might strip all my strykers and repaint them.

Hoth_902 · Post by **Hoth_902** » Mon Jun 22, 2020 2:56 am

Redleg posted some Strykers using the Tamiya green color. It looks about right. I am re-posting it below.

I am wondering how much the primer contributes to the issue I am having. I know that when I use Grey primer with Desert sand, I get a dirtier look to the vehicle because of the thin layers I am using. when I use white primer, I am seeing a cleaner desert sand color. I looked on line with the larger scale models, and alot of people use a grey primer and another guy put a couple of drops of grey in the Tamiya Nato green to lighten it. Not white by any means because my experience with using it in model masters Nato Green, was warned not to, is that in certain lights it washes out and looks like a pale green. Especially natural light.

have been using white and as stated above, it might be my problem. I use Model Master's Nato Green on my Russian camo over dark Yellow base and it seems to not wash out in sunlight. Granted, the I have lightened with white and that is a problem. Again, as stated above. I am going to get the Tamiya Nato Green today, I think.

Been working on my stripping process. It seems like I can do 8 hours soak in simply Green and I can use a medium tooth brush and get it all off. I then soak for about an hour more or so and I can go in and get some of the harder stuff. I did find that it was harder to get some of the rust color off the treads but it was extra thick. So no worries there because I will be painting it that same color again.

Fingers crossed I like the NATO green from Tamiya. I got like 15 strykers to paint and another 30 to strip and repaint.

mike robel · Post by **mike robel** » Mon Jun 22, 2020 5:18 am

I typically prime with tamiya white primer for fine work or rustoleum white or gray for larger work (like 1/144 boosters, 1/72 aircraft, 1/35 Armor) if at all on those larger models.

Cav Dog · Post by **Cav Dog** » Mon Jun 22, 2020 6:17 am

Just admit that you'll never have the exact color no matter who makes the paint and your life will be much easier..

Look at this real world example:

https://www.google.com/search?q=stryker ... dA95UQteRM

It looks a lot like Vallejo dark green 893 or vma 250 bronze green. But once you paint a mini one of those colors it just doesn't quite match.

Everything from lighting, to batch of paint, to monitor colors, scale, distance and everything else you can imagine will cause variation. So get as close as you can and game on!

Hoth_902 · Post by **Hoth_902** » Tue Jun 23, 2020 2:17 am

Cavdog,

Yea, I agree that you will never get it matched 100 percent. I have a couple of things that are close in most lighting. In some lighting, it washes out but its not bad. I looked at a lot of pictures and see alot of variation in color, so I am good with it not being right on. I know that is hard. I was ok with the lightened color at first but then I kept getting the one sunlight that made it look like a greyish color. that was hard to overcome. See picture below.

The Leopard was painted with the lightened color. That was about 10% white to 90% Model Masters NATO green. The stryker is 100% Model Masters NATO Green. Trudt me, the Leopard Color looks really bad on a table. I did some M1s the same way and it was not good. So I am actually fine with going to back to 100% Model Masters Nato Green. However, I wanted to try out a color that some people might have had better luck with before I went back to my original color.

Trust me Cavdog, I kept looking at them for over week wondering if I would be ok with them.. I know I am neurotic.. it sucks to be me.

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Tue Jun 23, 2020 3:14 am

The LEO color is close to the delivery paint of the original M1s, which, at the time, was called medium green. PostMaster medium green is too dark and too rich.

Hoth_902 · Post by **Hoth_902** » Tue Jun 23, 2020 5:42 am

I should have stayed with the original out of the bottle color and we would not be having this conversation. LOL. too dark is ok, pale is horrible lol.

redleg · Post by **redleg** » Fri Jun 26, 2020 3:48 am

You engineers and your attention to detail! Being an artilleryman, I only need to get within 50 meters of the right color.