The best, most accurate OD acryllic?

Here's my standard take on OD Green from WWII. It won't give you the proper color from various manufacturers, but it provides some interesting insight on the OD debate.

WWII OD Green

Confusion about the correct WWII OD shade to paint vehicles began with the government first attempted to establish paint procurement standardization in 1950. This standardization was laid out in color list TT-C-595, the precursor of the current FS 595a paint chips.

During the 1920's the Corps of Engineers standardized a DARK olive drab, previously called Panama Pullman, as color #9 in their field manuals on camoflauge. This OD #9 became the standard color of all Army vehicles through WWII and was the factory production color of all Army procured items during the war. It was also issued as a paste, to be thinned, for field re-paints.

In field operations the 'lusterless' no.9 color was found difficult to maintain and a semi-gloss version was adopted beginning in 1943. However, it was factory applied only to vehicles manufactured from late 1943 onwards. It can be seen in photos of the later T23 turrets, 76mm guns, and manlets. This dark semi-gloss OD was used on vehicles from then well into Vietnam.

When the first standardization list was published in 1950, the original WWII no.9 lusterless Dark Olive Drab was no longer in use and did not appear in the publication. However the AirCorps no.319 light Olive Drab, as well as several other OD shades remained and through a series of publication revisions, the light OD was included as a paste over chip of another darker OD in the FS595a chips we now treasure. This color has become color FS 34087 and is often incorrectly identified by many model paint and kit manufacturers as WWII OD. Actually, the dark lusterless OD 34087 in the original FS595 that no.319 was pasted over was a lusterless version of the semi-gloss used from 1943 onwards and would therefore be a very close match to the WWII lusterless color.

This dark OD does not appear in current FS publications and is not produced by any paint manufacturer, and modelers have to mix their own by simulating the rare original FS 34087 chip in Pub. FS 595.

So in a nutshell, the original OD that US vehicles and tanks were painted is NOT listed as a current Federal Standard color. FS 34087 (from the original publication) is about as close as you can get. Many modelers think that the current FS 34086 (Loam) color is a pretty close match to the original darker FS 34087. The choice is up to you.

interesting stuff...... thanks a lot Robert.... I really like the look of the Vallejo, so i'll stick with it.... appreciate your research.

Geoff

Another factor for the olive drab mix is weathering. I remember a chemical engineer on another discussion board giving various reasons for olive drab fading rapidly in the sun. I'm not a CE, but certainly from the photos of tanks and planes painted OD, it seems as though OD weathers pretty severely, so no matter what shade of OD one uses, there was probably was at least one vehicle with a similar weathered shade.

Here's a suggestion:

Go to any gun show or surplus military store. Look at the pants and jackets. Notice the variation of the colors even though they are all "OD green". Same thing for ammo cans, they arent all the identical color.

I dont think someone would criticise the "color" or "shade" of the green you use on your model since the colors can vary depending on wear and age.

Thanks everyone..... don't know why i was so worried about it, all your answers make perfect sense.... appreciate the feedback.

In my 24 years in the Army and the Army National Guard, I've seen OD paint range from almost pea green to black. And the cans all had the same FSN, but different batch numbers or different manufacturers. And OD is still in the system, available as laquers and enamels, in gloss, semi-gloss, and dull, in pints, qts, gals, 5 gals and 55 gals plus spray cans.

By the way, if you were to try to get the supply sgt to order you some OD enamel and give him an FS 595 number, you're going to get a blank stare followed by "What the *$#* are you talking about? I need the FSN (Federal Stock Number)". Nearly everything you get through the system has an FSN (very new items cause problems because they often have not received an FSN - in which case you will be told how to order it). 99.9% of the people in the military down towards the sharp end don't know what FS 595 is and could care less as long as they get the color they want.