Q:. Faded Olive Drab

I use Tamiya enamelsand their OD is a little too dark for me so I lighten it with a few drops of buff. After painting,using Tamiya weathering pastels, I apply a very light coat of the light OD followed with buff. Im happy with it.

I've been using Model Master enamel OD with a few drops of brown as a base coat. I add a few drops of white and put down a light coat in the direction of airflow. Then I thin the OD, brown, and white and mist that on to bring the whole thing together.

I just paint them with the basic OD out of the bottle, then airbrush the entire upper with a lightened (with white or  tan, depending on the amount of fading desired) mixture of about 90% thinner and 10% paint...

Just in case no one has told you by now, Testor makes a faded olive drab in both enamel and acrylic.  The Testor enamel is #2051 and the acrylic is Polly Scale #505218.  Either of these should solve your problem.  They should be available in most hobby shops or from a company like Squadron Mail Order.  Good luck!

ruddratt

fermis:

I have tried mixing with yellow...didn't like it, white....hated it, I now only use a light tan for any green.

 

Ditto that. Khaki or a light tan has given me the best results.

I'll go threezies on that.  Base coat out of the bottle and cut it with tan, thin a a bit more than usual and lightly, and in a haphazard pattern, fill in the panels.

fermis

I have tried mixing with yellow...didn't like it, white....hated it, I now only use a light tan for any green.

Ditto that. Khaki or a light tan has given me the best results.

Someone PM'd me about the validity of a radar nosed B-25...this should answer that.

I have tried mixing with yellow...didn't like it, white....hated it, I now only use a light tan for any green.

Either blend in some white or yellow. More important than that is how you apply the paint once you have it mixed. Start with the appropriate colored base...such as an aluminum...natural metal skin of the aircraft...and apply the paint sparingly to help create the illusion of worn and faded paint such as I did here on the wing of this B-25.

Even the lettering is faded and worn from prolonged exposure to sunlight. You can see the rudders are restored and of a darker color of OD.

This aircraft has a mix of old and worn as well as new and restored. This whiffer is an aircraft that was is being restored as well as having received modifications for specific tasks...such as Search and Rescue using its array of precision radar and radio equipment to pinpoint a radio signal or beacon.

Adding red wouldn't give you the effect you were after, as mentioned above it would most likely darken it.

Adding yellow to the paint itself shouldn't be a problem, after all olive drab was created by mixing two colors, black and yellow. There was never any green used in making olive drab.

Adding white would probably work but white can be hard to control, I would think adding buff or something similar would be a better choice.

I use the LIFECOLOR olive drab set which contains some great shades so I don't mix my own shades, although I build armor, not aircraft but I just responded to the thread topic.

HTH

Red + Green = Dark Green.

I would stick with a few drops of white as all faded paint ends up with white streaks and a overall whitish appearance.

Some would argue to use yellow, I disagree and feel it does not look realistic, it pains me to see yellow being dry brushed over olive drab!

After the base coat is on individual panels can be tinted with weathering powder in different colors. Keep this light to be just noticeable to the viewer.