Olive Drab for WW2 USAF aircraft and Vietnam

[RiotRolo]

Hi,

 

I have a jar of Hobby Color Aqueous H304 'Olive Drab' in my stash bought when I bought a B25 Mitchell. I also have a A-20J Havoc and a Huey. My confusion is that on the jar of H304 it states A-10A etc. which is not a second world war aircraft and looks  different to what the B-25 should be which is a more green mix of Olive Drab. The A20J is a D-Day one so later in the war and the Huey is post WW2; is there a specific 'Olive Drab' I should be going to for each kit or will they all be the same H304. To further confuse me, Tamiya have an XF 62 and an XF 74 version of olive drab which look a different shade. 

 

So... Shall I go ahead and use the H304 on my A 20J Havoc and Mitchell or will this be wrong?

 

Thanks

[Graham Boak]

Much ink and many electrons have been expended on this subject.  There is and was a wide range of "Olive Drab" and certainly what was used in WW2 was not identical to the current Federal Standard paint.  Indeed, there could be a wide range of different colours seen on a single aircraft, most commonly perhaps on early C-47s, where different parts of the airframe were painted by different subcontractors.  So it would be difficult to say that H304 was "wrong", but if anything I would expect to see a lighter browner shade on the WW2 aircraft.  Beyond that you could find a wide range of information and discussion - unless you wish to spend considerable time without ever finding any simple "truth" (because such does not exist) I'd recommend simply using whatever you've got unless you are seriously unhappy with it.

 

I think I have some 20 different tins claiming to be olive drab, or at least presenting a colour that I think can represent WW2 OD.

[k5054nz]

After much reading I opted for XF62 (I'm a Tamiya diehard). Works nicely for PC10, too...