Modern Danish Army AFV paint set

Danish armor in two periods

From the early 1980s Danish combat vehicles ran in a uniform dark green finish, either overall or broken up with black fields. When Denmark sent an armored group to southern Afghanistan, the Leopard 2A5DK tanks and the equipment that went with them received a lighter coat built on sand and brown tones. That change from European green to a desert palette is the most interesting thing about Danish models.

The shade breakdown

The manufacturer's reference states for each bottle where the shade appears on the vehicle. The base green matches the Danish standard introduced in the 1980s, and the black covers the disruptive fields of the same scheme. The gray-beige to the European standard belongs to the desert finish of the Danish contingent's vehicles and faded quickly in the sun, while the brown and the fir green complete the scheme of the rapid reaction units introduced in 2007. The last bottle holds the green the Leopard 2A5DK carries on its road wheels from the factory.

Building advice

The desert scheme is not drawn freehand: soft transitions look more convincing when you spray from a short distance at low pressure and build the paint up in layers. On the all-green finish it helps instead to pick out the edges with a lighter tone, otherwise a large area blends together optically. Choose the thinner and the final varnish from the same program so that the layers behave predictably. Danish vehicles are heavily dusted in photographs, so it pays to leave the base noticeably more saturated under the later grime than you want to see on the finished model.