WWII US Army Europe & North Africa 1942-1945

Sand, olive and winter white

In three years, American soldiers moved from the Tunisian desert through Sicily all the way to the snow-covered Ardennes, and their vehicles trailed that journey by only a step in color. The sand finishes of North Africa gave way to olive green everywhere, and on the Western Front winter coats and light recognition markings were added to it. The eight shades follow that whole arc, so one box will let you display a machine from 1942 and one from the last weeks of the war.

What the eight cover

• three light tones: pure white, aged white and ivory
• a sand color for the North African campaign
• a light and a dark green tone for camouflage patches
• a particular green shade known from US Army vehicles
• the base olive green, the most widespread finish in the whole collection

Two of the eight shades, the light green and the olive, are the same as the paints in the set for the Marine Corps, so if you build vehicles of both services, part of the range will serve you twice. The rest of the box goes elsewhere: the sand and the light tones are what the green set lacks.

The three white shades can be put to more inventive use than it may seem. The pure white serves for lettering and for lightening, the aged one for a worn winter coat, and the ivory gives a warmer cast where a sharp white would look new. On large areas, spray thin coats and let the surface underneath show through, or the model will lose its depth. The paints come in dropper bottles; the box holds no kit and no decals.