Ambulance Colour

Here is a great cross reference chart for paint colors. There is no equivalent color to Humbrol 102 Army Green though. This chart is a great reference though.

markm70

Sounds like you need the ambulance for the Albatros. I've had this happen more times than I care to think of. Most recently, I was putting an Auhagen Castle model together (seriously, a model of a castle). the fit is very exacting and every time I got one end of a wall together, the other end would come loose, be misaligned, etc. Once I had all of the wall mounted and aligned with each other, the castle didn't quite fit on the base that I had made for it; I had to make a new one. It finally got done, but I'm ~not~ ready to do any more structures for a while. Oh well, back to my resin Heinkel He.280.....

Well...sometimes "just Olive Drab" is as accurate and precise, as any other answer. Now, this is not WWI, but in the book "Bomber Command: American Bombers in Original WWII Color", by Jeffrey L. Ethel; there is a beautiful color photograph (page 6) of two ambulances, parked side-by-side, awaiting the bombers' return from a mission. These two vehicles, both the same model, and serving with each other...are two entirely *different* shades of "olive drab". The two colors aren't even close. Perhaps one of them is, technically, *not* "olive drab". Perhaps neither is. That is irrelevant. The relevant point is what colors they *are*...not what color, some piece of paper says they are *supposed* to be.

:o)

Steve Zaloga's article on Olive Drab a couple of years ago in Military Modelling stated that while the alphanumeric designations for Olive Drab changed over the decades it was in use, the official color cards were virtually the same from World War One until OD was discontinued in

1974. He also says that of the model paints currently available, Tamiya's is the closest to the official color cards issued during WW 2, though he suggests cutting it a bit with German Dark Yellow for scale effect. There was more variation during WW 1, as the color was mixed by the units themselves using orange and black, rather than using factory mixed paints. The OD model paints matched to the FS34087 standard (like Testors Model Master) are really only correct for Vietnam era helicopter, and the No. 41 Olive Drab and the AN613 shade are both 1940's aircraft colors. Gerald Owens

Gord> My last query of the old year.

Thanks! This is really very helpful. I might have a bash at a black/orange mix to see how it turns out.

Is there any chance of a scan or copy of the Zaloga article? I have a number of projects that will, sooner or later, call for a greater knowledge of Olive Drab than I currently have.

Gordon McLaughlin

Thanks for your reply. You're right in saying that there is often local variation so that a precise shade or hue cannot be specified. The reply from Gerald Owens reinforces this point in relation to the mixing of orange and black at unit level. Even so, it helps to know what colour a thing was supposed to be so that a reasonably likely colour can be attempted even if it's not exactly right.

My problem with this model is that I have no idea what colour was used on WW1 US Army transport and couldn't judge whether a green colouring was likely to be right. The same problem applies to British Army vehicles of the same period. Some may have been in the grey colour commonly used on pre-war horse-drawn vehicles. Others are said to have been a dull brown and a third group may have been a rather glossy dark green. There would certainly have been some variation but it helps to have some idea of the intended colour as a starting point.

Gord>

Thanks for your reply.

I had the same trouble with a vacuform Nissen Hut. It took ages to get the curved roof to fit properly. Nevertheless, buildings make fascinating models and I have a few kits put away for the pre-war industrial street scene that I'm never going to build in my retirement.

Gordon McLaughlin

Thanks for your reply.

The IPMS Stockholm colour site is invaluable and I often refer to it. Unfortunately, as you say, it gives no clue as to the colour to which Humbrol 102 is matched, assuming that it has a real-life prototype.

Gordon McLaughlin

I thought the field recipe for OD was YELLOW and black. Having never tried it out though myself...

Let us know what you get.

WmB

Orange+Black is an excellent start for mixing "khaki" (the traditional khaki, as opposed to "Dockers Jeans light tan khaki"). O+B gives you that brownish-green, similar to that great Humbrol color of old, "RFC Green".