Operation Husky was the codename for the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily. This skin is inspired by historical research into the actual vehicle paint schemes and markings used during this period.

During the North African campaign, Allied air support complained that the white star emblem on US vehicles could easily be confused at a distance for the Axis cross. US forces started to add a circle in white or yellow around the star to make their vehicles easier to identify. For the invasion of Sicily, a mandate was given to have all American vehicles paint their emblems as a white star surrounded by a yellow circle. This was not always done consistently, therefore various vehicles display a few different interpretations of this emblem design. In some cases they ended up with extra-thick yellow circles because they were painting them over an existing white one.

To this day, precious few photographs remain which show this variation of the US emblem, mainly because most film back them was black and white and the yellow doesn't show up as well. But there were enough references available to inspire and guide this skin, which aims to represent paint schemes and insignias of actual battalions that were a part of Operation Husky. These specific batallions would have been under the command of General Patton during this campaign, and were key in the allied push into Italy and further into Europe.

The majority of the vehicles in this skin are painted with a green/olive base and a mix of warm dirt and sand tones hand-brushed along the bottom. A few doctrinal vehicles use a simpler two-tone green and tan large camo pattern. A few of the vehicles on this skin (those with ranged artillery, mortar, and/or rockets) also feature a layer of camouflage netting. These were routinely used for static emplacements but were also helpful in hiding vehicles which were not going to be moved constantly and thus were more vulnerable to attack by air. And all have the rare white star with yellow circle emblem.

This skin is being submitted for the "War Paint" Polycount/Relic competition, under the historical category. The full set includes a summer and winter version for all US vehicles. If you like this and would want to see it available in the game, please vote for it! Thanks for your consideration.

WIP thread is here:
http://polycount.com/discussion/163594/wip-historical-us-invasion-of-sicily