Aircraft Olive Drab - green or brown?????

[Rick]

Can anyone please clarify??? I'm working on a P39 Airacobra and soon a P38 Lightning. Both will be pacific based. I see instructions and color references calling for an olive drab finish which in my mind is an olive or green. Problem is I keep seeing is a brown colored finished also referred to as olive drab. It seems pacific aircraft have a brown finish and ETO aircraft are green.

Can someone please confirm the correct color or paint codes for PTO Airacobras and Lightnings??? Thank you
Rick

[wbill76]

That's unusual Rick, to my knowledge the OD used was the same in the ETO as well as the PTO...but in the PTO you've got harsher climates so fading and other wear-and-tear would be more evident, so that might be some of the differences you're seeing in photos?

[bigjohn]

I agree with Bill. The Olive Drab might be weathering a bit different in the south pacific. Olive Drab is a very strange color, There are an endless list of conditions that can make it appear a different shade.

[dupes]

Olive drab IS pretty brown...and between weathering and colorized period photos, it would be pretty easy to enhance that unintentionally.

[doogsatx/]

The thing with Olive Drab is it wasn't a uniform color in any way, and so it's almost impossible to nail it down. On top of that, you have all kinds of conditions you have to take into consideration.

OD Production - Olive Drab was produced (I've read multiple places) by mixing zinc chromate primer with black. This was done at the factory level, at field modification depots, and in the field. So right off the bat you have a ton of variation, even on the same type of aircraft. Field mods and repairs could even lead to multiple different shades of OD on the same aircraft. But you can bet Lockheed's OD would be different from Bell's, which would be different from North American's and Republic's.

Weathering Conditions - Aircraft in the PTO and ETO weathered differently - high altitude UV fading was the order of the day for ETO aircraft, versus the lower-altitude salt corrosion + UV + sand + humidity that you had to contend with in the Pacific.

Lighting Conditions - Time of day and clouds/sun can vary the way OD looks. So can latitude. Just think about how things look a little bit different in winter when the sun is lower in the sky...now remember that that's a permanent difference across the theaters.

Film - Different films did different things to colors.

Honestly it's an impossible color to nail down...I tend to either wing it, or if I have references go with those.

Here's my most recent OD...a French Jug:



Here's another Jug with different OD shades on the bombs and bazooka tubes.



And here's another that was done in a very dark green OD because that's what the reference pictures showed.

[Rick]

Thanks guys. You've given me a lot to chew on here. Makes more sense thinking about it. Makes those references that much more important. I appreciate the input.

Rick

[tonylee-Rest In Peace]

Here's a color chart for you.

www.alternatewars.com/BBOW/Colors/US_Aircraft_Colors_1940-1949.htm

How correct is it??
Tony lee

[Rick]

Thanks Tony. Awesome color chart. The olive drab sure looked brown to me. Yet I look at a jar of paint and it's green. Doog's input makes a lot of sense so it's very possible that fading is the key here.

All good stuff. Thanks all.
Rick