[:D]HI, i have seen the post made by BUILD22 and i got pretty much mixed up. I am building a Jeep and a Cletrac in a 48th scale, i understand that the tanks the truks and jeeps were painted pretty much in the same color, but then what olive drab is olive drab???[:(] i mean, i have painted my vehicles with the gunze H78 but i didnt like it[V], i have the H304, H52 and some testors olive drab and olive colors… but my question is still there, what olive drab is olive drab???[:(] so, i wanted to ask to all the pro´s on this forum, what olive drab is olive drab??, and most important what color and brand would you suggest me to paint my Jeep and my Cletrac???[?]
You’re probably going to hate this answer Hector so I’ll apologize right off the bat … sorry.
Paint them any Olive Drab and don’t worry about which O.D. is O.D. By the time you weather any of these vehilces a little bit they are going to be a different colour anyway. The exact O.D. only applies IMHO to a vehicle that is fresh out of the paintbooth and hasn’t yet seen the light of day. After that… everything changes.
Personally I use Tamiya Acrylics, easy to use, kinda accurate, easy clean-up.
Not at all my friend!, you must not apologize for nothing! and that is a good advise, i got real confused because every olive drab looks totally different, testors O.D. is different than the gunze and than the tamiya, so i´ll just go with the tamiya and you are totally right, after a weather everything will change… as you may realize i have never assambled any vehicle so that´s why i dont know anything about colors or details related to this… any way, thank you very very much! 
My pleasure Hector … I sometimes wonder is the U.S. Army / Airforce could come up with an answer to “what colour is Olive Drab”.
That would be helpful for guys like me LOL!! there are so many diferent O.D. colors that i dont think even the U.S. Army / Airforce would know which color is accurate… anyway, thank you Robert! happy modeling and God Bless you too
Different shades of OD will give your diorama some authenticity. And it will look that much more interesting. After all, what are the odds of vehicles painted in different conditions, different times looking exactly the same shade of colour??! Unless I was modeling a factory scene, I’d never put two vehicles on a single diorama with the same base colour.
Hector,
You asked which olive drab is olive drab. There
are several FS numbers for olive drab . They are different
shades and some are flat and some are gloss.That said
I can say that I have used olive drab that was the same FS
number on the cans but were different shades.
They were made by different manufacturers
so the ingredents were not the same. This also affected
the way they weathered. Find an olive drab that you like
and have fun !
Fuzzy
You are right, every brand has its own shade, i am planning to paint a 1/48 jeep in a very accurate O.D. shade but i found myself in a sea of shades and brands, all of them are different and since i lack of experience in building military vehicles i didnt wanted to weather it that much, thats why i wanted an accurate O.D. shade to save myself from the risk of weathering and messing all up [:D], anyway, i´ll have to take this risk and see what happens…
Hector,
My fault for not being clear in my earlier post.[:I]
I was talking about the real 1to 1 olive drab paint . Different
shades for different types of real eqiupment . Plus the same
FS color could be made by many companies and wouldn’t
be an exact match. Personal experience here. Lots of times
you needed to get the job done and used whatever was
available. Find an olive drab (model paint)you like and have fun ![:)]
Fuzzy
Roger Wilco!, thanks for the tips! [:)]
I find Tamiya acrylic olive drab to be pretty dark, especially after applying a couple of coats of future. It’s kind of like sparying water on dry concrete — it really darkens it up.
Other than that, I agree with everyone else - find a shade you like and go for it. Varying the shade from vehicle to vehicle makes sense too.
Thank you a lot i was planning to try tamiya because i found the Gunze Zangyo H78 too dark![V], i guess i am gonna try with the Testors olive drab… thank you much! [:)]