"US MERDC Scheme in Europe?" Topic

I'm going to be painting some early Cold War US vehicles, in the plain, Olive Green/Olive Drab color, for the earlier period, so those will be pretty simple, other than selecting the correct color for the above – lots of inaccurate paints out there apparently, for that.

Any recommendations will be cheerfully accepted, on an appropriate OD color – seems to vary from a milk chocolate color to a dark, olive green color in various photos.

Will be painting 6mm, 12mm, and 15mm vehicles, if that makes a difference, for scale effect.

For the late 1970s though, I'm curious to know which MERDC scheme was most prevalent in Europe, especially since I saw a posting mentioning that the colors were rarely adjusted. Not sure if that is correct, but the color options appear to be:

1. Temperate, Summer scheme of Forest Green, Light Green (rather an olive color), Sand, and Black (sand was omitted by some units, since apparently they ran out of it, and some units apparently didn't bother applying it);

2. Temperate, Winter scheme of Forest Green, Field Drab (Brown), Sand, and Black.

Was one more prevalent than the other, for a longer period of time, for units in Europe?

Did units switch from Light Green to Field Drab (Brown), with the seasonal changes, or did they leave the Field Drab on year round (seems like a good match for dirt/mud, so would be appropriate in the Summer, too)?

Did the above paint schemes vary by unit, with some repainting, and others, not?

I'm especially interested in the above for the Main Battle Tanks, M113s, and other fighting vehicles. I'm a bit less concerned with the soft-skinned vehicles, since I've read they changed less frequently than the front-line units.

Thoughts?

I've done some 6mm MERDC schemes on M60A3s and they turned out OK.

I'm trying to find the reference I used but the site seems to have gone.

However a good reference for the paints to use is:
link

A Google image search for MERDC throws up some good images for overall schemes, eg:

Hope this helps a bit,

B

In two years my track never got painted. And while I was in 2AD everything was Forest Green

Every single photo I've seen of MERDC in Germany shows Temperate Winter, with Field Drab instead of Light Green.

The USMC on exercise in Denmark and Norway however, seem to have opted mainly for Temperate Summer.

There are of course, numerous non-standard variations in evidence. Most common of these seems to be Temperate Winter, minus the light Sand bits.

In the early 80s there is also the odd vehicle with Dual-Tex or MASSTER experimental camo still knocking around (softskins in MASSTER seem particularly common in photos and I've even found one still painted that way in the late 80s).

Something to note is that Abrams and Bradleys don't seem to have been painted MERDC. They arrived in a plain dark OD scheme and stayed that way until being painted in NATO 3-Colour scheme.

Here's the colour guide I used:
link

I think I used Humbrol 116 for Dark Green and Humbrol 117 for the lighter green.

Can't offer thoughts regarding vehicles deployed to Europe, but can offer observations from our local NG armory in Ohio 1977-1985. I saw them many times, and was always looking for something new or different.

They had M48A5, various M113, and M109s, all in MERDC. The M48s and M113 looked the same as far as shades, fading etc. But the M109s using the same colors had minor differences. The M48s and 113s were always in the Summer Verdant US and Europe scheme. The M109s were sometimes in the "Snow temperate with open terrain" version with the field drab in place of the light green. The sand on the M48s and M113s seemed to fade rapidly. For years I thought it was white/off white, much lighter than the official sand color. I remember noting at times that the sand on the M109s was much darker (closer to what I now know is the official color), than the other armored vehicles.

My impression was that the vehicles either rarely got painted, and usually got painted the summer verdant colors. Sometimes vehicles would disappear, and then come back after awhile with new paint. My guess is that they painted them for exercises, there two week adventures, etc.

These observations were made at irregular intervals, and I never tried to take photos, unfortunately. I did have opportunity to have hands-on and even in the vehicles at times, and did particularly take time to note the paint and wear to the vehicles for model painting.

By the way, if you can find a copy of TB 746-95-1 (1976), it has templates and whatnot for the patterns on vehicles in service at the time. I found this link, but didn't get it from here:

link

One note about Bradleys & M1s when they were first deployed. The base color was actually Forest Green FS34079 not OD.

Damon.

There's a whole series of MERDC schemes over on cybermodeler

link

Thanks Damon,

They always look really dark in photos, so I thought they must be painted the OD that was used later for 3-Colour?

Or perhaps I'm just looking at ones that were repainted?

Cheers.

Forest green is a fairly dark green. It is the same as the dark green in the MERDC Summer/Winter Temperate scheme.

Damon.

PM Cold Steel. He spent a goodly sized chunk of a career leading big steel things around in Germany and would certainly know the schemes in depth.

Thanks for the info thus far.

Thinking back, I seem to recall most being in the Temperate Summer scheme, here in the US, but was wondering if it was the same in Europe.

Not at all surprised that they didn't get painted/repainted twice a year, as the seasons changed.

I was a bit surprised to see the Temperate Winter scheme for Europe though, given the colors I've seen here, stateside, in photos of USAREUR vehicles, and also assuming if the Cold War went hot it would most likely do that in the Spring, or Summer, for good fighting weather.

Happy to entertain additional thoughts and anecdotes, if others have more to share.

More linkies for colors and patterns
link
link
link

Thanks for the links.

I found lots of them also, on Yahoo and Google images.

Some in black/white line drawings, which are printer friendly, and some in full color.

Everything I saw at Ft Hood, 2AD, 1st Cav, III Corps was winter temperate MERDC, forest green, field drab, sand and black. Same was true throughout USAREUR in the 80s, at least up until the appearance of the Abrams and Bradleys, which as others have stated were forest green only.

I did see some USMC stuff in MERDC grey desert at 29 Palms and some MERDC red desert on a brigade of the 24th mech we supported during a Bright Star in Egypt in 83 I think.

The 1st ID Main and 2d ID used the Temperate, Summer scheme throughout the early to mid 80s. I don't remember seeing the Temperate, Winter scheme before around 91. We didn't repaint for the seasons, although we might throw a hasty coat of whitewash on for a winter exercise in the ROK.

Yes, that was my experience in the ROK and later with the 197th Mech at Benning. Of course, we never whitewashed our vehicles at Benning like we did in the ROK …

I'm coming late to this discussion but I can answer Mako11's question: "For the late 1970s though, I'm curious to know which MERDC scheme was most prevalent in Europe, especially since I saw a posting mentioning that the colors were rarely adjusted."

I was stationed in Germany from March 1976 through March 1979, assigned to a mech battalion in the 2nd Brigade of the 8th Infantry Division. When I arrived at my unit all vehicles were still in olive drab. They were repainted in the four color Winter Verdant MERDC scheme about May of '76. They were never repainted during my time in Germany nor was anything done to adjust colors during the winter. The pattern of colors as applied to the vehicles was according to the official guidelines. The flotation skirts on the M113s were not painted. Also not painted were canvas or soft covers for vehicles like 2 1/2 ton trucks, jeeps or GammaGoats. I do not recall seeing any US Army vehicles painted in anything but Winter Verdant during this time.

I can't speak for how things were done after I left. A friend of mine who joined the 3rd Armored in Germany a couple of years after I left told me that the sand color of the Winter Verdant pattern had been dispensed with in the 3rd Armored units.

Hope this helps.

If you have the MERDC paint guides, the Desert schemes are really tempting for scifi use, since they were rarely seen.

When I arrived in Germany in late 83 they had just switched from the MERDC pattern camo to the NATO three color pattern and it stayed that way far as I know, I left for a little over a year at the end of 85. When I returned to a different unit in 87 the Cav unit I was assigned two had a 3 color camo pattern but the brown wasn't as dark as the NATO pattern calls for.. I didn't ask I just painted when told to do so.. lol