Olive Drab - A Thesis!

If you are modeling something that is freshly painted, then the exact color might be important. If you are modeling something that has been out in the weather for any length of time, then just about any shade of OD works fine. Different manufacturers formulas faded differently and stuff that was repainted in the field suffered even further as the OD would either get thinned too much (or not enough), which effected how the paint would fade, or it got repainted using the field-mixture of black and yellow at 1:1 ratio. This technique came about when one of the manufacturers let it slip that their OD was simply their black and yellow and since they were shipping 55 gallon drums of black, yellow, red, blue, white and OD, the army decided to stop shipping the OD to save space.

Then there is the question of direct matching of a color chip or using a lighter shade, which goes to suggest scale. My rule of thumb is to pick the shade of OD I like best and use it. If you're modeling WWII, you can almost never be wrong.

Scott snipped-for-privacy@AOL.com

I've got a couple of samples of WW2 OD. Trouble is, they don't even come close to matching each other. One is a radio parts box, and the color is a very dark OD, almost like Luftwaffe Black Green. The other is a footlocker, and is finished in a warm olive green. Both have original stenciling including date of manufacture. Based on other samples and Steve Zaloga's article, I suspect the standard was somewhere in between these two colors. Point is, there was a lot of variation, and once you start weathering, the original finish is almost irrelevent, unless it is parade vehicle. Gerald Owens

"Lafimprov" wrote

In your case Gerald, the issue is probably one of the different reflectivity, vehicles, and aging characteristics of two paints, one made for metal (I presume) and the other for wood. Additionally, the radio parts box was undoubtedly a Signal Corps cognizant item while the footlocker was procured by the Quartermaster Corps. I have not seen any indication in the records that these two technical services used the same OD color standard, let alone the same standard as the Ordnance Department. If you don't think that's possible, consider that to this day these now-unified technical branches haven't even standardized on a model designation system. . .

The problem I have with the "anything goes" school is that anything goes. Things may change under various conditions but I think the starting point CAN be pinned down pretty well.

KL

I gotta try that, thanks!

The Keeper (of too much crap)

In article , Keeper writes

Do we know what shade the yellow was?

Regards,

The pigment was supposed to be yellow ochre, a common artists' color and universal pigment.

The paint chips are still only going to be suited to near new factory machinery as once it went to the units it's paintwork was touched up by the poor souls who got caught for various little things like having a bit of brasso residue on your parade belt buckle.

I have had the joy (?) of painting several army vehicles in my time in the service of Australia.......... and I can assure you that the paints I used were mixed so no two vehicles out of the twenty we had in our unit would look the same........ but they all had the wheelnuts taken off, the old paint stripped off with a benchmounted wire brush and repainted black. All because I made some silly comment that the Duty Officer overheard! ;