"Normandy Airborne uniforms – getting the color right…" Topic

A pipe dream?

Is it possible? I have just recently purchased some Artizan US Airborne. And like most TMPers, I have searched the web (including old TMP posts), watched painting videos, etc. looking for just the right color.

I also have my dad's field blouse that he wore in Normandy (complete with repair job he had done to the uniform after getting shot in the arm by MG42: link It has spent most of the years in boxes or containers, so I don't think it had faded too much since the war (how much it did during the war is a different question). To my eyes, none of the videos and tutorials I have watched get the color right. Is there such a thing as the right color? Or is it just a pipe dream?

In 2019 Andy Oneill wrote the following on the subject here on TMP:
Para 1942 uniform colour is one of those things that's there's more opinions and less proof than you might imagine.
The uniform was a sort of fawn khaki colour which seems to have varied considerably in tonal value and perhaps hue. A sort of stone or pale green are widely considered "valid" as well as tan. This is something people disagree on though. Some people saying no green some saying any green degraded towards brown in the years since ww2. Khaki is an odd colour though and can seem a bit green to some but brown to others
Bright mediterranean sun, low quality dye and variations in washing almost certainly factored.
Surviving high quality colour film of us soldiers shows a huge variation in "uniform" colour of us infantry so likely the same applies to paras.

Maybe the best way is to just get something kind of close and just go for it. Perhaps even better would be to very the colors slightly so there are a bunch of slightly different shades?

Hopefully related:
We had a sergeant in Viet Nam who, when in barracks, used to get his uniform starched! It became a very pale green, almost white! It looked sharp, but everyone else, including most officers, just went with a standard wash which left the jungle fatigues kind of limp and usually a little paler.
So, the military laundry can also affect uniform color.

"Cook whites" more often involve bleach rather than starch. but I remember them. Even without that, in the woodland BDU era you could almost always pick out instructors from recruits by the darker uniform of the recruits.

But to Korvessa's problem. There were complains during the war that hues were not consistent, and a naval officer once told me that "it you're wearing three khaki items, you're wearing at least two shades." Figuring 28mm here, my thought would be tan/khaki from maybe three different paint makers, then three washes/inks, so you've got nine khakis, close but not identical, centered where you think khaki ought to be. In the words of Ricky Nelson, you can't please everyone, so you have to please yourself.

And you may enjoy the discussion here on khaki vs OD, with color photos.
link

I paint my 15mm Normandy paratroops the color of the faded 101st uniform shown on the color plates with Vallejo 70914 Green Ochre and lighten it a little bit as a highlight. I got that because of my friend's dad had saved his first uniform as a replacement after Normandy as they given him the older uniform and that's what he wore in England and right before Market Garden they were issued with the new darker uniform for the jumps into Holland.

Robert
Interesting link

Based upon that, I must have the Khaki shirt.
Good to know.
Thanks

How did the government define the color when they put out a request for bids? There may be fancy, scientific methods now, but I don't know how far that goes back. Back in 1889 regulations said, in effect, "Y'all drop by the office, and we'll give you a swatch to match." The current official Greek flag is kept in a vault in Athens, and should you want to manufacture them, you arrange to visit the vault, you see the flag, then you go away and try to duplicate that shade of blue from memory.

Grelber

I never worry about getting the khaki color right. "Khaki" was so many different shades you cannot keep track of them. First off dye lots were different. then add aging, wear and tear and care. All of them faded at different rates. I have seen literally hundreds of khaki uniforms and none of them were exactly the same color. Paint your figs and worry about something else.

I'm going to really complicate the issue and burst your bubble on any hope for realism. Most (but not all) the Normandy M42 jump jackets and pants were impregnated with a chemical solution that protected the wearer against gas attack. The US Army was particularity worried the Germans would use gas for some reason (on the beaches, I can understand but miles in land where the paratroopers landed…I doubt it). This also impacted the color of the M42 suits (I think it generally darken them). I've seen pictures of the guys boiling their uniforms to get that stuff out as it made the uniform less breathable.

I actually own a few M-42. The new ones tend to have a green hue. As they age and get washed, they tend to lose that green tint.

Recommendation: I won't worry about it too much.

Thanks everyone.
Based upon the responses, I think I will experiment some and show lots of variety!
Besides, it's more fun to paint that way

Gamers can be obsessed with getting the color right. Real armies, no so much.

Normandy airborne uniforms were darker than earlier iterations due to CC2 chemical treatment:

youtu.be/7hQpw_uxPyo

link