USMC AV-8 paint set (early schemes)

Marine Corps Harriers in their first camouflage schemes

The US Marine Corps got the vertical takeoff attack aircraft in 1971 and from the very start gave it a color signature of its own. The green and gray combination of the upper surfaces held until the end of the 1970s, and it is the look in which most people do not know this machine, because the later overall gray finishes pushed it out completely.

The package goes further along the timeline. Two darker shades, a deep green and a blue-gray, appeared on the upper surfaces only briefly, but then came back on the later versions in the so-called ground scheme of the 1980s and 1990s.

• The dark green and gray of the original scheme of 1971
• The light gray of the lower surfaces
• The deep green and blue-gray of the later ground scheme
• The light gray of the temporary desert camouflage
• A medium gray matching a field-mixed shade
• A washable white for improvised winter camouflage

The most interesting item is the medium gray. During the operations over Iraq the units mixed the paint straight in the field and the resulting tone could not be bought; this bottle is its closest documented match and is tied to the machines of one particular squadron. It is completed by a lighter gray, with which the green areas were oversprayed at the same time.

The last paint is a temporary washable finish. It was used to cover the green areas in winter, and on a model a convincingly worn layer can be made of it, because once it is dry it can be partly taken off with a damp brush.

The whole range is a lacquer one, thinned with the maker's thinner, and it creates a firm film resistant to masking.