Working on an Apache helicopter, I followed the kit recommendations for using three shades of olive drab and dark greens, using my usual pre shading with the darker colors first. The whole thing came out looking nice but way too dark, and you could barely distinguish the different greens. I decided to spray a very light and uneven coat of yellow green over the whole thing to lighten it up and get some weathering effect as a post shading effect, and it caused the various shades of green to pop. The result looks better than I hoped for, the right and lighter shade of olive drab and a nice worn and shaded effect. Amazing what you can do with post-shading! You can’t really see the yellow green at all, as such.
Hey Chuck. You talking Tamiya XF-4? I love this idea. Any pics?
Joe
Joe- Tamiya Black Green, Olive Drab, Dark Green, and yellow green. Sorry no pics yet- stay tuned!
(Sorry, I’d have to run down and up 2 flights of stairs to get the XF numbers right now and I wanted to answer your question right away.)
But Apaches are not OD…[^o)]
Yep, one of the advantages of a good airbrush. I often post-shade, particularly of upper surfaces to represent chalking of UV rays of aircraft left out in the sun on a regular basis. Newer UV stabilized paints have gone a long ways to reducing this effect, but WW2 airplanes really suffered from it.
Stik-
Maybe this one is olive drab because it carries the markings of Greece. There’s a photo of the real thing on the box and it sure is OD.
Joe-
Here are the Tamiya colors I used:
XF-4: Yellow green (Post-shade)
XF-27: Black green (pre-shade)
XF-61: Dark green (pre-shade)
XF-62: Olive drab (main coat)
Looked a very dark green until I added the yellow green post shade, now it looks just right!
Yeah this.
I cant speak for Greek Apaches. But US serving AH-64s are delivered in Aircraft Drab, FS 34031. A darker and grayer shade of green than Olive Drab FS 34087, which is what US Army helicopters wore until the late 70s/early 80s.
Thanks for the insight. I’ll do a little more research. But I’m happy with what it looks like now-
That’s what counts. If you’re happy with the way that your build looks.
Exactly. I’d really love to see pictures of how this effect turned out.
Thanks Chuck. I actually have all of those. I may experiment with an upcoming Thunderbolt.
Let us know how it turns out, Joe. Remember, slow and easy with the yellow green!
OK, finally got Photobucket to work. Here’s a picture of my finished Apache as promised. I like the way the paint turned out!
Thats is gorgeous…I’m definitely gonna experiment with your technique…thanks for the pic Chuck
I really like the looks of that, Chuck.
Thanks for sharing the tip.
Thank you for the kind words, guys! If you are interested, I posted several more pics in a new thread in the Helicopter catagory. I thought this one too far back in the stack for any more action.
The Hasegawa kit’s fit and finish were very nice and it went together easily, although there were many tiny parts, and a few mistakes in the instructions. The decals were good but very thin and required careful handling. Recommended only for experienced modelers.
Chuck, your OD looks VERY good for a modern aircraft. You have a great eye for color my friend. Ty for the how-to on your application and i will definately file the info you generously shared with us.
Your color looks great
As a rule of thumb to get to “scale” color I was told to ad about 10-25% white to colors for scale effect.
You can vary the color adding a little white to your airbrush cup as you layer each coat.
A friend of mine who buys and refurbishes World War 2 vehicles purchases Olive Drab paints from a company that has matched the color FS chips for every year of WW2.
I bought some to use on some B-17’s my son and I were building(model kits) and the color was striking!!!