olive drabs in Vietnam

Wow.. Way to get the ground up and onto that 1/4-ton, Stik...

Excellent example pics Hans. The jeep shot in the 1st batch above is not too far off this mix of Tamiya OD/Black that I did a couple weeks ago on my gun jeep.

But those M48 shots are excellent. The 5th Mech one is really good for showing the dark OD with the almost purple or bluish hue that the dark OD could get. The Blackhorse M48 looks like an A2 with the 3 return rollers.

Some more M48 "Stuff"...

That's not rust.. That's the red clay of the Central Highlands... IIRC, that particular photo was taken at a Special Forces Camp near the Laos/S. Vietnam border, where the only armored battle of the war was fought between three 69th Armored M48s and about nine NVA PT-76s...  One of the tanks that fought in that battle currently resides in the Patton Museum at Ft Knox...

Here's a good shot of a 5th Mech M48, with the OD both faded and freshly "washed":

Blackhorse 3-2... (11th ACR)

 Delta 55, side-shot of the above dozer tank, "White Witch".

Delta 5-5 again:

Unauthorized searchlight cover... (Yeah, I edited it... But, If ya don't already know what's under the bar, ya don't belong in Armor)

 "Damn... Charlie will strip EVERYthing if ya don't watch.."

Yeah, I got some more 'Dozer pics... I'll get them up for ya via PM after Household Six gets off her computer, which is where I have them stored...

I too have that tank in the line-up of "To Do" kits, along with an AVLB project...  The dozer is a fairly simple scratch-build as they go... Not a lot of "surgery" needs doing, andthe blade is pretty straight-forward... I just need accurate drawings

Main problem is that I have way more in the way of pics than M48 kits... I got the Tamiya M48A3 in the stash, and the current armor project is the Revellgram M48A2 build I'm blogging in the Armor Forum.. I'm gonna do pretty much everything with the Revellogram kit from this point out, since it's A: a 20.00 kit, and 2: pretty accurate as M48A2 kits go...  No point in buying 40.00-50.00 kits only to tear/cut/smash them apart at the beginning...

Those are great examples, also any M113 would be good too.

Do you have any more pix of the M48A3 dozer tank?

I have been working on a way to build one. The more pix I can get the better it would be. That's an aftermarket kit I wish someone would make. It looks like the basic M9 kit is a good start with a little scratch work on the chassis for the tubing and covers to the rear.

This shot shows the OD to about it's best effect and it's pretty "new" for a tank in Vietnam...

But then you can start weathering it, bringing the ground colors (depending on where you're depicting it as being) up onto it, around it, and even through it...

Note "satin" finish...

HawkeyeHobbies

Pick one! Then add a bit of flat white or flat yellow. OD was a color that under the tropical sun faded faster than a sunset.

Someday a modeler who is on active duty is going to take a paint chip of a vehicle and do comparison photos of the vehicle and the paint chip to show how fast paint fades over time in such places as the tropics and desert AO's.

The color can vary depending on where and when the subject is being portrayed. Sitting in the yard at the factory fresh out of the paint shop, debarking off the supply ship or at the end of its combat cycle...all will have different OD tones.

After all has been said.....perfect.

In all my military years, I never saw anything look like a chip or two vehicles the exact color......unless they were new from the factory. Wethering is most important!!

Rounds Complete!!

Pick one! Then add a bit of flat white or flat yellow. OD was a color that under the tropical sun faded faster than a sunset.

Someday a modeler who is on active duty is going to take a paint chip of a vehicle and do comparison photos of the vehicle and the paint chip to show how fast paint fades over time in such places as the tropics and desert AO's.

The color can vary depending on where and when the subject is being portrayed. Sitting in the yard at the factory fresh out of the paint shop, debarking off the supply ship or at the end of its combat cycle...all will have different OD tones.

Model Master Dark Green (FS 34079) looks good too.  Here it is on an M48A3.

I appreciate the help and all of the suggestions.

Rob - What Tom posted is actually the color matches for WWII Olive Drab taken fron Steve Zaloga's article on WWII OD

Big Daddy is giving you the best advice. I also use Tamiya XF-74 but then coat it to semi gloss and then weather/fade the hell out of it.

Rounds Complete!!

I tried everything, Tamiya XF-74 looks pretty good.

But here is the issue that people don't talk about that much, Vietnam is a sunny place. All it takes is a few weeks and the color is bleached out. It's also a sandy place so the earth and sand get into everything changing the color.

So if you want to build a Vietnam era model you have some issues to consider.

How long has the vehicle been in country. And under what use, was it a M113 jungle busting or a REMF M151A1. A few weeks in the jungle and the vehicle looks more of a light green with scratches all over the side, M48s will have bent fenders or even not have fenders. M113s will be missing lights and other parts on the glacis plate. So you could imagine what it did to the paint.

How many times has the vehicle been repainted.

If repainted what paint was used. Many times they used what they had and mixed other paints even motor oil in it to make more. So you will see many shades if newly painted.

What year, the paints changed and availability was an issue. I see new vechiles coming over in the early years have the gloss green and later the lighter flat green.

What season, if it was the rainy season the vehicle will be darker because of the humidity and rain. For instance any Hue Tet battle vehicles and figures would be darker at the beginning of the battle and lighter toward the end when the rainy season was over.

So to paint any Vietnam era vehicle or figure you have to consider what year, what time of year and what part of Vietnam it was. Along with those other factors I mentioned.

So how do you find out what color to use? Simple get a lot of pictures and use one to make the color right. Make sure the picture is not color corrected and is original or if color corrected jibs with other pictures.

Testors has a color called "army helo drab" and it's pretty close, although it may be a little too dark. Until I started using the helo drab I always mixed black with OD until I got the color I was looking for.

Try:

http://www.militarymodelling.com/news/article.asp?a=4536

No current OD, per se, is an great match for the Vietnam shade of OD. But Testors MM Green Drab, FS # 34086, Humbrol Dark OD 66, or Tamiya OD, darkened with Black are good starting points. The old Pactra paint Dark Olive Drab was an excellent choice but that line and color are  long OOP.