Posted by Chuck on May 12, 1998 at 14:04:58:
In Reply to: Re: Camoflage paint... posted by Jim Pace on May 11, 1998 at 12:05:04:
You can find the whole story on camo in AR 750-58 "Painting, Camouflage Painting and Marking of Army Materiel" and TB 746-93-1 "Color Marking of Military Vehicles" and finally TC 5-200 "Camouflage Pattern Painting". The last one is a short manual with color illustrations.
These refer to the "old" four color pattern which is the one you see most outside the military. The newer 3 color pattern is in current use, but I don't have any info on it.
The manuals have templates for all types of vehicles showing the recommended pattern to break up the lines. The templates are independent of the actual colors used. The template will show the black areas plus the outline of the other areas which are labeled 1, 2, 3. You pick a color pattern based on the geographic region and the season of the year that you want to blend into.
For example, in TC 5-200 (28 August 1975) they have a chart on P6 which gives the "Condition" vs the color numbers to use. The first Condition is " Winter US & Europe - verdant" and the colors are given as 1=FG, 2=FD, 3=S plus black. The color codes are given in another table where it shows FG=Forest Green, FD=Field Drab and S=Sand.
For condition "Summer US & Europe - verdant" the colors are 1=FG, 2=LG, 3=S plus black. LG is Light Green which substitutes for the winter Forest Green.
Color number 1 45% of the surface area, number 2 is 45% of the surface area and the other two 5% each, as determined by the template pattern.
There is also a color chart which has the actual color chips for each color, plus another which gives the NSNs for each color (both gal and 5 gal containers). This is pretty complete.
After washing, the template from the manual is transferred to the vehicle with chalk and each pattern area is marked with its color from the manual specs. A viewgraph projector was sometimes used to make this easier. The actual painting was done by spraying along the lines (removing the chalk just ahead of the spraying) and then filling in the areas with the sprayer. Small areas are done by brush.
In actual practice, local practice could be anything including brushing the entire vehicle.
Hope this helps,
chuck