WWII Olive Drab question

[Rjel]

I've always struggled trying to find a shade of olive drab that looks like I imagine it on WWII U.S. aircraft. B/W photos always look different, some light, some dark.  But, even color photos vary because of age and different types of film I assume. Some look very brown while others look like a darker green.

 

I know some fighter groups in England, like the 357th, used local paint that looks more like a Forest Green (hearkening back to my Crayola days) as opposed to USAAF olive drab. I've looked online and found a few sites with online paint chips and html numbers that also vary. I've seen hex number 63563b referenced a few times. It is a much lighter brown than the official P-51B template has. I also found a site talking about the change to another olive drab variant in later 1943 called ANA-613 olive drab.

 

So my question is, should olive drab be a brown with a slight greenish tint or should it lean more towards a darker greenish color? Or should I just paint what I like and call it close enough?

[geraki9]

14 hours ago, Rjel said:

I've always struggled trying to find a shade of olive drab that looks like I imagine it on WWII U.S. aircraft. B/W photos always look different, some light, some dark.  But, even color photos vary because of age and different types of film I assume. Some look very brown while others look like a darker green.

 

I know some fighter groups in England, like the 357th, used local paint that looks more like a Forest Green (hearkening back to my Crayola days) as opposed to USAAF olive drab. I've looked online and found a few sites with online paint chips and html numbers that also vary. I've seen hex number 63563b referenced a few times. It is a much lighter brown than the official P-51B template has. I also found a site talking about the change to another olive drab variant in later 1943 called ANA-613 olive drab.

 

So my question is, should olive drab be a brown with a slight greenish tint or should it lean more towards a darker greenish color? Or should I just paint what I like and call it close enough?

What you say, unfortunately, also applies to many other colors...

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2024 by geraki9

[BOO]

19 hours ago, Rjel said:

I've always struggled trying to find a shade of olive drab that looks like I imagine it on WWII U.S. aircraft. B/W photos always look different, some light, some dark.  But, even color photos vary because of age and different types of film I assume. Some look very brown while others look like a darker green.

 

I know some fighter groups in England, like the 357th, used local paint that looks more like a Forest Green (hearkening back to my Crayola days) as opposed to USAAF olive drab. I've looked online and found a few sites with online paint chips and html numbers that also vary. I've seen hex number 63563b referenced a few times. It is a much lighter brown than the official P-51B template has. I also found a site talking about the change to another olive drab variant in later 1943 called ANA-613 olive drab.

 

So my question is, should olive drab be a brown with a slight greenish tint or should it lean more towards a darker greenish color? Or should I just paint what I like and call it close enough?

 

Paint what you think looks right in the sim its being used in. Super Hobby and Mr Paint swabs are a good starting point as a colour sample for me as they are scaled for model use which, to my mind, also works well in sims. If you find a tone on an existing skin, sample that but bear in mind it'll have layers of grim and dirt over it. 

 

B/W photos can be the devils own in terms of trying to assess tone as they accentuate and often lighten tones somewhat. 

 

[Art-J]

I'd say more towards brown (judging from preserved original non-repainted component in aviation museum in Cracow). That being said, don't be too anal about it really, as both pre- and post-43 versions were infamous for their fading out in field condition very quickly. Thus, unless you plan to represent a squeaky-clean day-one factory fresh airplane, there's no point in getting crazy about exact shade.

[Rjel]

Thanks fellas. It is all rather befuddling. 

[Skywarp]

Well I use to get my tones from this site:

 

https://www.cybermodeler.com/resource6.shtml

 

this is the Olive Drab tone from US WWII Table:

 

Edited August 26, 2024 by Skywarp

[Rjel]

7 minutes ago, Skywarp said:

Well I use to get my tones from this site:

 

https://www.cybermodeler.com/resource6.shtml

 

this is the Olive Drab tone from US WWII Table:

 

I found that one too. 

[BOO]

Destaturating some of the colour picked swabs rather than messing with their colour can also work.

[[CPT]Crunch]

All of them are correct, the paints back than weren't protected by any sort of clear coating, and subject to degradation of color pigment from sun and weather exposure.  Also you had multiple contractors using multiple vendors and supply points, no computer type standards back than, they went with what they had or could get.  When you read many of the manuals of those day they always allowed substitutions for equivalent chemicals.   

 

You could start with the base color of a known standard than fade or darken to whatever you require that looks close to the original photo you want.