Most everything I read says the standard anti-glare panels on P-51s were painted OD. Looking at old color pictures of P-51s a lot of the panels seem to have more green in them than OD does. They look more along the lines of Testors OD Green. It doesn’t help that I’m partially color blind. Is it me, the film, the paint, or does it really matter?
shall, I really think that both are correct. They used what they had at hand. Same with bombs, some were more drab, some were more olive. It really just depends on what kind of mood you’re in, or what your refrences say.
In addition to what Max said, OD (especially before 1960) is notorious for fading to a variety of colors on relatively brief exposure to the elements, especially UV. Even the more modern editions of the color are fairly susceptible to fading.
Also, old color pics can be very misleading, especially for colors such as OD. If you look at enough pics from the era, you’ll see OD that looks Green to Brown… on the same aircraft. A lot depends on the lighting, exposure, & the more limited tonal variations of the film emulsions of those days. Throw in the vagaries of the reproduction process & determining the right color from old photographs is a crap shoot. Personally, I try & match the FS numbers that were being used & not try to match a color pic. That all said, some Mustangs had the anti-glare panels painted with Green 42 rather than OD, which is definitely more of a green hue.
Regards, Rick
The colour used for anti-glare panels was Dark Olive Drab 41 ANA 613. The are directly above the instrument panel (scuttle) was specified as Dull Dark Green ANA 612 but in practice ANA 613 was usually carried back over the scuttle.
Thanks for all your insights! Now if I can just make up MY mind about how to paint it!