I mean, either way, it is an actual paint scheme. How is it not genuine if it's actually on the real-life vehicle?
Genuine as in made by the manufacturer and not soldiers who had way too much time on their hand. Not saying it's not real, but it wasn't originally intended by the original manufacturer.
It's still an actual, existing real-life paint scheme. The entire context of the conversation was why the 'Con logo appeared on this kit, and the answer was because the real vehicle has it. Regardless of if it's intended by the manufacturer it's still "genuine." Plenty of model kits exist based on custom decoes for vehicles.
The final paint scheme is done by the military themselves not the manufacturers. My buddy was part of a helicopter crew in the Marines. He said his helicopter originally came yellow for some reason. It went to a military facility to get the proper paint scheme and markings. As one would expect the paint is special military paint. Even then the final markings specific to a ship, squadron, etc, like serial numbers and what have you was done on site by the crew themselves. My buddy would make the stencils and what not and paint them on himself with the approval of the captain or whomever was in charge of course. Any markings on the vehicle had to be approved, so it is indeed official. He mentioned that all the markings had to be low vis grey or black for tactical reasons. So, I guess they wouldn't be able to do a proper purple Decepticon logo or red Autobot logo
Thanks for that info; I know in the Navy, they had a special polyurethane paint for their aircraft (corrosion control), so what you say about "special paint" makes a lot of sense.
I imagine Hasbro would have an issue with the model if they knew. Didn't they change Gung-Ho's chest tattoo to not be the Marine Corps symbol just last year?
