Couldn't find anything definitive on the Google, so were 2nd AD M8 Greyhounds painted in the black/od camo? And if so, was it a hard or soft edge?
I have a project going and would like to do something other than OD and remain historically accurate.

The black patch camo was most likely applied to M8s in Normandy as that was the temporate camo scheme authorized by 1st Army at that time. These were sprayed on in large soft-edged patterns. There were official suggested patterns but who knows how closely these directives were followed and by what units.

If you're modeling a specific M-8, the problem becomes the pervasive dust of that Summer of 44 - probably stirred up by the ridiculous number of vehicles that were there. Sometimes you can detect the patterns -or are those dusted over oil and fuel spill stains? Alternately, Sometimes what may look like a monotone vehicle is just heavily dusted.

Stephen Zaloga's Osprey book on the M-8 comes down on the side of black patches and it could give you some ideas. Although that M-8 that he claims as "Conan" - as in - the Barbarian" (?!) is actually more likely to be Cohan - as in George - the song and dance man!

Best,
Greg

Robert E. Howard created Conan in the 1930s. (First appearance in Weird Tales Dec. 1932) The stories were published in pulp magazines of the period. I vaguely remember hearing about this from Steve Z. at a show. Not too far fetched to imagine a recon vehicle driver being a pulp science fiction maniac. Conan of course is also a name going back into the Early Middle Ages as in Conan O'Brien or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

You might be right but when I looked at it under magnification it looked like an "h" to me rather than an "n." Also, George M. Cohan (d.1942) was not only widely known as "Mr. Broadway" and was portrayed by James Cagney in the hit movie, Yankee Doodle, he Wrote, "Over There" and Yankee Doodle Dandy. Far less obscure a guy at that time than Conan.

The same kind of mindset that put Optimus Prime all over tanks in OIF would have been reading Weird Tales and put Conan on his AFV. Soldiers as a rule are more likely to know pulp magazines and sci-fi characters than Broadway. I don't remember seeing a whole pile of tanks reference Wicked or Rent in OIF but tons referenced comic books. Just saying as someone who named a bunch of tanks in my time. We had The Tick, but not Les Miz.

As a student of pop culture stuff is named for characters and song titles, not the writers so you'd see "Yankee Doodle Dandy" or Little Caesar before George M. Conan or Edward G. Robinson.

Or that the vehicle commander was Bobby Fitzpatrick naming it for his grandfather Conan Fitzpatrick.

What eves. A very different army at a very different time. That was essentially an army of 12 million draftees - a much less homogeneous force than the one we have today. I've seen Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on WWII vehicles, as well. "Weird Tales" not so much...