MODERN FRENCH ARMY COLORS

French equipment in NATO colors

The French army moved to three-color NATO camouflage in the 1980s and has kept to it to this day, on wheeled carriers and on tracked equipment including the Leclerc tank. The six shades in the package cover both that standard combination and the finishes intended for overseas operations in the dry areas of Africa and the Middle East.

What the individual colors represent

The backbone is formed by a dark green, an earth brown and black, that is three tones laid on the real subject in broad bands. To them are added a desert sand shade for missions in hot areas, a second green and a light blue-gray paint carried under its own French code. The original finishes were made in a so-called infrared treatment, so that a vehicle would stand out less in night optics.

Recommendations for application

• Keep the edges of the bands sharp rather than misted; the finish was applied on the real subject without a soft transition.
• Run the black band across the edges and the bends of the plating, which is where photographs most often show it.
• Do not combine the desert finish with the green scheme on one vehicle.
• Do not emphasize the boundaries between the bands with a glaze, as that breaks the whole up into separate blotches.

Besides combat vehicles, the palette also serves for containers, trailers and artillery equipment, which were painted to the same regulation. It also finds a use on the gear and crates stacked beside a vehicle in a diorama. Anyone building French equipment in the desert will appreciate that the desert tone and the green scheme are together and do not have to be put together from different ranges.