Dunno if this is the best place to ask, but im looking for non standard tank color schemes, sort of like the red baron type stuff but for tanks, if anyone has any good examples.

You mean, real life examples?

What constitutes "off-beat", the use of yellow as the base color (though not necessarily designed for desert environments; e.g. some Japanese WW2 tanks, or some Nazi tanks on the East and West front) - or are you looking for more outlandish color combinations like pink or orange?

The latter would be custom paint jobs for parades (Netherlands/orange) or peace demonstrations (pink), and there was the blinged-up version of an M7 Priest howitzer in "Bruno" as a film gag. There was a "Milka" purple/pink/white camo Leopard 2 once as a gag in the Bundeswehr. There are probably more examples, but these are which come spontaneously to my mind. Then there's the plain white for UN forces.

If you're looking for something like deep red (like said Baron's triplane) AND to be used in real combat, I don't think you'll find an example. Flamboyant display was very quickly punished on the battlefields. The Baron may have gotten away with it for a while for reasons best explained by more experienced flight (sim) experts; I'd summarize it as "inefficient armament and, as a consequence, the edge went to pilots with superior maneuverability". There is no direct analogy for land based combat.

I mean off beat real war examples.

Things like this https://imgur.com/YWW9K9x

Im building an m47 patton and i dont want to do just a run of the mill typical camo scheme as that is not terribly interesting to me.

Well, there's the google image search. Your best chance would probably the MERD-C camo scheme of the late 1970s/early 1980s.

Thats just normal camo though. And i wouldnt have asked if my google searches had turned up anything.

M-46 at Cantigny in tiger scheme. Don't know if it has any historical basis...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimfrazier/8232966853

Maybe that should tell you something.
I mean, there's compelling reason not to come up with a paint job that attracts attention. Attention is highly unwelcome on a battlefield. There's a reason why white cats kill significantly less prey than cats of pretty much any other fur color (except in winter, maybe). It's not as if people down't want to show off, including soldiers. But only if they can get away with it - like the Red Baron. The reality is however that there is an unbroken emphasis on camouflage, stealth, and signature reduction. You can't outrun incoming fire, something that may still have been possible in WW1 dogfights, or in hand to hand combat with pointy sticks and blades of limited reach. As soon as rifles became prevalent on the battlefield that delivered accurate fire at long distances, bright colors rapidly disappeared from uniforms.

While not 'outlandish' the British desert camouflage is interesting - look at Matildas...
Also 'fun' is the Berlin Brigade Camo used on British Chieftains.

Not so much in the early US line - the standard paint was overall green throughout most of the Cold war (except a brief spell around the 1980s with MERDC There are a few oft used 'Tiger' schemes from Korea/Vietnam for various Pershing/Patton models, but I've not seen much else of interest, and they would seem likely to be 'specials' rather than

Hunnicut has an M46 from 1951 in "Tiger" markings, but all the M47 are shown in standard overall green with some tactical markings or numbers visible.

There are examples of M48s from Fort Irwin 1957, with green running gear and lower hull, but white overall on the upper hull and turret. (Gun and mantlet green). Presumably to reduce heating?

Korea has some more ad-hoc camouflage - a standard M48A2C tank with tactical markings then overpainted with a broad "squiggle" in what looks like it could be ochre or pale green.

That is more or less all I've seen - other than a black over green USMC pattern on M60s (similar to UK BATUS shceme), and various flavours of 'sand'.
Tactical markings, the vehicle name (on the side or on the barrel) a gypsy caravan look and dirt... that seems to be the norm.

[derail]

The reason WWI aircraft - particularly on the German side - had "non tactical" paint schemes had everything to do with communicating with one''s own side. With aircraft models changing every six months and no radios it was hard to know who was on one's own side or who was the leader of the flight.

The German answer was to paint their planes distinctively - the solid red plane (and there was only one) was MvR's, and if one was in his flight knew that after the battle to join up on him. It also helped prevent friendlies on the ground from shooting one down - if a German plane flew low over their own troops they knew not to shoot the oddly colored ones.

My own Nieuport 11 is in 1916 camouflage with roundels only on the bottom of the wings, placed there to inform machinegunners not to light it up as it came back over friendly lines at low altitude. Later they added them to the top to keep from being bounced by their own guys.

[/derail]

On the US side, there won't be a lot of fancy paint schemes (other than maybe some whitewash being splashed on the tank in the winter, or sand 'mudded' onto them in the desert), as they were cranking out tanks like crazy and didn't want to spend one second more than was required to get them on the way to the theatre of operations.

OT

Austro-Hungarian ace Godwin Brumowski flew an all red Albatros D.III (Oef) 153.209

There are schemes that look offbeat if taken out of their environments- for example, the kinds of patterns the Afghans use or many types of Arab two tone or three tone desert patterns on T-55/62/72 tanks would look quite conspicuous if on display in a tank museum or as scale models.

So for instance India might be something you want to look at which actually look a bit flamboyant:

http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/threads/indian-army-t-90-bhishma-and-t-72-m-1-tanks.75606/

The PLA marines use a specialist beach assault scheme, you know immediately what is for:

https://21stcenturyasianarmsrace.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/chinese-zbd-97-amphibious.jpg

Well, yeah... but for an M47 these paint jobs would be a tad anachronistic. If he wants both "offbeat" and "used in actual combat" plus - I assume - at least somewhat credible for an M47, the range of possible designs shrinks dramatically. A "Berlin Brigade" M47 would be a stretch, but heck, I at least would squint my eyes and admit that it might fit some military thriller novel. A MERD-C pattern might fit some US National Guard narrative where the unit is somehow affected to this one forgotten relic which was erroneously left in storage when they were actually supposed to be decommissioned. Or maybe a donation to the Army of South Vietnam. Or captured by Angolan rebels. In those cases I suppose any kind of fantasy camo would be justified.

Don't forget service in the Kitsap Militia...

Or Jordanian tanks.

I dont much care if it was used on an m47. Im painting it to be an israeli tank used in gaza, but i dont typically like standard paint jobs, theyre not very interesting to paint.

LOL @ the link of T-72's.



This paint job brought to you by the letters L and T. Mostly T. Because it's a tank.

Go all Steam Punk with it and paint it like WWI or a 1920s battleship.