Question on U.S. WW II aircraft olive drab

Gunze!

Nathan,  Where ?

Spruebros, Sealmodel, LuckyModel, Ebay... Decide if you want the lacquer or Aqueous. They have a WW II OD and a modern OD.

Here is a page for you to look at. At first glance, it looks like "more than I wanted to know", but, if you scroll down, there is a visual comparison of a few different model paint brands. The article is about vehicle OD, but, the same paints are what is available for the aircraft modeler.

Under the paint chips, it gives the results of paint matching to some of the standards.

I use Acrylics, but, Nathan's post gives you a very good place to start,,,,,,H-52 from Gunze (Mr Color #12 if you like enamels)

www.militarymodelling.com/.../4536

I like using Tamiya's Olive Drab to depict fresh/new Olive Drab 41, the most common USAAF OD used during the war. BUT, since that paint weathered rapidly and markedly different depending upon the operational areas climate and paint batch, I tend to dabble in all other paint company lines' Olive Drabs as well. Testors MM GreenDrab (FS# 34086)is also a good starting point for fresh OD 41. As long as you are using an Olive Drab paint you wont be too far off the mark.  

TYVM for the valuable info guys.

TarnShip,

I just finished reading he article you sent me here, compared the color chips, and I already had it mixed   real close to the Tamiya XF-62 to my surprise.  I guess I had it in my head to emulate the color from the movie Pearl Harbor but as the article states I was wrong.  I also learned to use Dark yellow to  fade the paint instead of white like I was attempting to do.  Again, I thank all of you so much for the info.

Remember, not all Olive Drab are the same. I can say the same for various shades of green, grey, brown, tan/sand, blues....

My understanding was that paints of WW2 era were not as color accurate as what they can do today, and further that under wartime conditions the services were not as likely to bounce paints as in peacetime conditions.  And, unless you are going to depict it as it was rolled out of the factory, it isn't critical because of the rapid weathering of paints of that era, as stikpusher pointed out.

TY Don .

After reading all of the input, I am more comfortable with the color choices I've made and the new ones I've learned from all of you.

Keep in mind that while you can and will see variations in some colors during World War II, that the Target Colors were the same. Anyone that doesn't know what Target Color they are aiming for has zero chance of re-creating a scene from World War II that they might see in a photo.

There are actually modelers out there that can paint a model to match the fine points of getting the variations right on a vehicle or aircraft that has such "unmatched" areas visible in photos. When we talk about paint standards, that is only so that any given modeler has a place to start,,,,,,since in the case of OD, there are about 400 model paints that are "Green", but are surely not a good place to start with in the pursuit of painting a Sherman.

Such as getting the two different Light Gull Grays right in order to build the middle aircraft on this decal sheet  www.modelingmadness.com/.../am72186.htm   This might be a poor example, since it is a case of the standard changing, which changed the colors, not "weathering" or "the impossiblity of manufacturing paint"  (yes, this is based on a real photo, I have a copy of it)

Just throwing this out there for any reader that finds this thread later and thinks that there was never even any attempt to ever match a color,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, or never any paint delivered via ship to a war zone, etc,,,,,,,,when in fact, due to subs sinking ships, sometimes the ships with the paint got through and the ones with the tires didn't (pick any two war items for this example) Paints, the standards, brushes, air guns, hoses, compressors, etc, etc, were all part of the "squadron kit" of equipment and supplies that went with a unit when they deployed from place to place, unless it was a TDY (and even then, there was a list of things that "Had" to go along)

I got my second copy of the Federal Standard from the file cabinets of a USMC unit, they were headed for the trash when a new, updated edition came out, and the Gunny let those of us that were modelers pick the sets out before it went into the barrell. (yes, "sets", as in multiple)

Rex

This is only slightly off-topic, but the best reference I've found concerning the "correct" shade of OD is this online article by IPMS/Stockholm on interior colors in US WWII aircraft (scroll down to the section on Olive Drab): www.ipmsstockholm.org/.../stuff_eng_interior_colours_us.htm

Lets face it, even taking into account for lighting differences, film type differences, camera settings,  weathering, fading, etc. OD has a lot of variety as these original Life color photos show...

Pick an OD you like and run with it...

Stik, thanks for all those great color pics.  The last one is so bloody cool, so much to look at in just one scene!  Check on that canopy masking on the left edge of that shot...Eduard or EZ Mask? 

Gary

Yeah, that is one busy place! But I think they are using Tamiya masking tape ;)

Noticed pic #9 is reversed? Look at the lettering on the bomber. Anybody got a mirror? LOL!

TY for the great pics.  i feel a lot better about my home made OD now.

If you want to be really hardcore about home made OD, you can mix your own using black and yellow like the US Army originally did. At least according to one of my Steve Zaloga books on the subject he wrote that the Army used to have directions for mixing Yellow Ocre and Black in certain ratios to get the official color back in the early 20th century. Much like the Navy had directions for mixing their various grays in the same time period with specific colors and ratios in that same era.