I'm including part of a scout camp that I attended andwas on staff at back in the 80s on my layout. I'm looking for paint that would approximate the light faded green that official BSA tents had at that time. I thought a military green might work, but that's way too dark. I'm thinking I'm going to have to mix paint to get the right shade. For those that have seen these tents, you know the look I'm after. Any suggestions on best paint to use as the base (and then probably add white to lighten it)?
Hi Jim,
The color is significantly more blue than any military olive drab or even faded green and much lighter as you indicated. Almost looks like a faded aquamirine maybe with a little more blue.
Spent the last 50 years running around various Boyscout camps in Wisconsin and the color was fairly consistant for canvas tentage for the first 40 of those years.
Scott Sonntag
Boy scout tents aew not official. Troops buy whatever they want. So it boils down to whatever era you are modeling. Early 60s may have dark green canvas. We had some that were army olive drab. That was the big tent.
Of course at summer camp we mostly went to provisional troops, and all of the tents ownd by the camp were the olive green . Little bit later we had green pup tents, could only fit two people. Those also were hevy canvas. Until the end of the 60s, allof out tents were an inverted V saped tent.
After that we got square tents that has a built in floor, and an single pole in the middle. Umbrella tents these were, these were a lighter weight canvas and were a light green color. Very nice you could stand up in them. We could fit three boys in each. What they might use now I have no idea. You might as well look in a sporting goods catalong (or on Google) and see what they might have there. or you could google world war II tents or Viet Nam era tents.
As ffor paints, use anything you darn well please. Materials fade, materials come from different companies, and differnt batches of material. Then of course they also get dirty and mud streeked. Yes we cleaned them after camping, but while they were set up they could have mud or snow on them.
By tent always had bars in the front. They did not want the LION to get out.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
RioGrandeJimI'm including part of a scout camp that I attended andwas on staff at back in the 80s on my layout. I'm looking for paint that would approximate the light faded green that official BSA tents had at that time.
I was a boy scout in the 70s. The tents we had at summer camp were a very light pale green color like they had been faded by the sun for ten or twenty years. You might try Tamiya Sky (XF21) or Gray Green (XF76). The F stands for flat matte finish. You can lighten or darken with Tamiya Flat White (XF2) or Flat Black (XF1).
https://www.tamiyausa.com/blog/xf-paint-chips-tamiya-acrylic-paint-xf/
I was a Boy Scout 1978-1981, and we bought our own tents.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Hello All,
I apologize in advance if I get too basic...
Regarding colors in general, you can mix primary colors: Red, Blue, and Yellow, to make secondary colors; Green, Orange, and Cyan (Purple).
To "lighten" the color, adding white, is a "tint." To "darken" the color, adding black, is a "shade."
Fabrics fade from exposure to sunlight at different rates, even for the same colored material- -canvas or nylon.
For this project, I suggest finding a close-enough color for the original "new" color of the tents.
From the base color make batches of tints and shades to represent the fading of the materials.
Having all the tents the exact same color might appear unrealistic. Even when new fabric colors can have a subtle "batch" variation.
An alternate method would be to weather the tents with washes- -both light and dark colors- -to simulate this sun fading, after you find a satisfactory base color.
Because most early B.S.A. tents were military surplus I would look at colors for military modeling applications.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"