"US Desert Air Task Force B-25C" Topic

I'm about to paint a number of 6mm B-25Cs from Scotia but I'm a bit confused by the Desert Sand colour I've seen in various pictures of this aircraft. I beleive it should have a pinkish tinge but a lot of illustrations show it as yellow. Is there another colour being used?

It's really sand, A/N 616 to be exact. It tended to fade and change color rather quickly in the desert sun, leading to a pinkish tinge, which is why you sometimes see it referred to as "Desert Pink".

Model Master used to make a very good match for the unfaded A/N 616 but I'm not sure if it's still in production.

Here is a good example of the US Desert paint scheme on the B-25.

picture

If you wanna use cheap craft paints, I've found that a good match is

3 parts: Apple Barrel Medium Flesh
1 part: DecoArt Crafter's Acrylics Storm Cloud Grey
or
3 parts: Apple Barrel Medium Flesh
1 part: FolkArt Medium Gray

It comes out with a good mix of factory US Sand No.26 (FS 30279) and pink decoloration. For even a BIT more pinkish hue, try

2 parts: Apple Barrel Medium Flesh
1 part: Apple Barrel Light Pink
1 part: DecoArt Crafter's Acrylics Storm Cloud Grey (or FolkArt Medium Gray)

Good luck and post some photos when you're done!
Rolando

I'm very tempted to do the B-25 in your picture CJArnold. Maybe I'll do some 488th BS aircraft for the Tunisian campaign.
Testors do US Sand A/N616. This also has the pink tinge,
testors.com/products/137667

I've got Xtracrylix Gulf War Desert Pink FS10279 which has the same FS values as AN616, so I'll give it a try.

More help needed. I'm finally start the b-25s, so was checking that I had the correct paint, decals, etc. On looking at ANA603 for the undersides, it appears much darker than the topsides of ANA616. See link.
link
Would they have used such a dark colour?

Yup, Neutral Gray was a pretty darn dark shade. You're on the right track, be careful not to over-analyze WW II camo. colors by thinking about the way things are done now.