Paint colour

[Martin Donnison]

I was thinking about paint colour for the tank, is there a particular ral colour I should be using as my bace coat.

Also do you guys paint your tracklinks.

Thanks Martin.

[David Merritt]

Hi Martin, I am intending to base paint my Leopard NATO Green which has the BS381C number.

The colour(s) that you paint your tank will depend upon the country that was operating it, the time of year it was operating and the country it was intended to operate in as the time it was painted.

The options are almost unlimited as long as they fit in with the area of operation. From the artic circle to desert and every thing in between.

David

[Aaron Cheng]

Based on my research so far, the factory primer colour is basically a pale yellow, possibly zinc chromate based (Zinc Yellow, RAL 1018 or slightly lighter). If you look at pictures of areas where there is a lot of wear (near the return rollers, front and rear of the hull floors etc.), you can see the yellow primer exposed under the base coat.

As for the base coat, most Leopard 2s seem to ship with NATO Green (RAL 6031 seems to be the most often quoted), but it really depends on the specific country you want your model to represent, as there are probably a half dozen or more shades of green that you could go with.

Also worth mentioning if you plan on using zinc chromate primer; It's very toxic and a known carcinogen (and possibly banned in your jurisdiction), so just go with a regular primer and base coat with yellow if you really want to have the primer exposed naturally via wear.

-Aaron