Vietnam War US Army Helicopter Olive Drab

[Knight_Flyer]

Guys, anyone happen to know was the OD on US Army helicopters in the Vietnam War brown or green looking? I've looked through all the OD paints and some look green while others brown. Looking at period photos, there seem to be the same effect although I'm not sure if the process of printing photos at the time caused a brown tinge when the colour is actually green? To confuse things further, found a discussion in another forum saying the OD became green later in the war. Don't know if that meant it went from brown to green or it became more greener than green 

Was the same OD also painted on army vehicles such as a Sheridan tank.

[Jure Miljevic]

Hello, Knight_Flyer

Perhaps this thread will help:

Cheers

Jure

[Knight_Flyer]

28 minutes ago, Jure Miljevic said:

Hello, Knight_Flyer

Perhaps this thread will help:

Cheers

Jure

 

Hmm... that might prove to be a challenge... quote:

 

"Yes, the earlier, Vietnam-era helos were in FS34087 Olive Drab.  It is a more brownish-green color than the later Helo Drab color"

 

So it can't be too brown or green and is in between 🖌️ 🐧

[Jure Miljevic]

Hello, Knight_Flyer

From the document, Matthew1974 provided in above mentioned thread:

 

Accordingly, a new color was developed for aircraft. This was a lighter, browner shade than the standard Olive Drab then in use by both aircraft and ground vehicles. By late 1966 this color was being applied to rotary wing aircraft. Markings were changed as well. The large ARMY and the full color national insignia were eliminated, to be replaced by “UNITED STATES ARMY” applied in lusterless black on tailbooms. All other markings such as serials and data stenciling was likewise done with lusterless black. This change in the overall Olive Drab color for aircraft created a situation in which there were briefly two shades of FS 34087: the new, lighter color for aircraft and the older, darker OD. In
1967, the color chip for FS 34087 was changed to the new lighter color. Needless to say, this caused some confusion, as there were still lots of existing stocks of the “old” FS 34087!
However, this all went away in 1974, when Olive Drab FS 34087 was eliminated altogether from the FS 595. This shuffling was due to the introduction of the MERDC camouflage scheme for ground vehicles, which used FS 34079 as the green element. The new, lighter aviation color was then re-designated as FS 34088, as it remains today. Thus, the correct, current FS595 color for Army rotary-wing aircraft from 1967 until the change to the current colors is FS 34088.

 

As I understand it early Vietnam era OD was greener and darker and switch to lighter brownish shade coincided with the change to low-visibility national insignia and other markings. Cheers

Jure

[Knight_Flyer]

40 minutes ago, Jure Miljevic said:

Hello, Knight_Flyer

From the document, Matthew1974 provided in above mentioned thread:

 

Accordingly, a new color was developed for aircraft. This was a lighter, browner shade than the standard Olive Drab then in use by both aircraft and ground vehicles. By late 1966 this color was being applied to rotary wing aircraft. Markings were changed as well. The large ARMY and the full color national insignia were eliminated, to be replaced by “UNITED STATES ARMY” applied in lusterless black on tailbooms. All other markings such as serials and data stenciling was likewise done with lusterless black. This change in the overall Olive Drab color for aircraft created a situation in which there were briefly two shades of FS 34087: the new, lighter color for aircraft and the older, darker OD. In
1967, the color chip for FS 34087 was changed to the new lighter color. Needless to say, this caused some confusion, as there were still lots of existing stocks of the “old” FS 34087!
However, this all went away in 1974, when Olive Drab FS 34087 was eliminated altogether from the FS 595. This shuffling was due to the introduction of the MERDC camouflage scheme for ground vehicles, which used FS 34079 as the green element. The new, lighter aviation color was then re-designated as FS 34088, as it remains today. Thus, the correct, current FS595 color for Army rotary-wing aircraft from 1967 until the change to the current colors is FS 34088.

 

As I understand it early Vietnam era OD was greener and darker and switch to lighter brownish shade coincided with the change to low-visibility national insignia and other markings. Cheers

Jure

That helps a lot. I clicked on what I thought was a link and when nothing happened, assumed it was broken. I think most of the schemes I have in mind will come under the brown shade of OD, not too fussed about doing a specific airframe as accurate as the real plane. Found a lot of interesting period photos of Vietnam War aircraft. Would like to think the people in those photos - pilots, gunners, navigators all survived the war and made it back home.

[perdu]

A proper can of worms subject, I love 'em.

 

In 1977 my unit was airlifted out of Ex-Reforger in Bavaria by a pair of CH47s.

 

Obviously a while after Vietnam but as the Chinooks arrived in a dust cloud it was very obvious that one was painted in a browny-green Olive Drab and the other was painted in greeny-brown OD.

Still best to find the aircraft you wish to model in a picture and take your cues from that.

[spruecutter96]

On 8/3/2021 at 5:24 PM, perdu said:

Still best to find the aircraft you wish to model in a picture and take your cues from that.

On the surface, this is good advice. Unfortunately, using contemporary images is riddled with big issues, as has been suggested by previous posters. The "colour accuracy" of any historic photograph is subject to big exposure variations, in-built colour casts / biases of the film used, fading, often-poor storage conditions and a number of other factors.

 

The colour image is a reasonable reference "starting-point", but take what it tells you with a big pinch-of-salt. This is a subject that will spark heated-debate from about now until Doomsday. When you add black-and-white images to the mix, you are travelling along the road to madness... 

 

Chris. 

 

  

[Jure Miljevic]

Hello, perdu

In summer of 1988 two Mi-8 helicopters landed in our barracks. One was in usual medium green (no idea about standard, but Humbrol 114 comes very close) and the other was in FS 34079, the same colour license build Gazelles had been painted with. At the time I thought she must have just came from the overhaul and somebody in a paint shop made a cardinal error, but years later saw a photo of another Yugoslav air force Mi-8, painted in the same colour. Now I am more inclined towards an experimental paint scheme, perhaps to test it against darker Alpine terrain. Cheers

Jure

[Knight_Flyer]

On 8/3/2021 at 5:46 PM, spruecutter96 said:

On the surface, this is good advice. Unfortunately, using contemporary images is riddled with big issues, as has been suggested by previous posters. The "colour accuracy" of any historic photograph is subject to big exposure variations, in-built colour casts / biases of the film used, fading, often-poor storage conditions and a number of other conditions.

 

The colour image is a reasonable reference "starting-point", but take what it tells you with a big pinch-of-salt. This is a subject that will spark heated-debate from about now until Doomsday. When you add black-and-white images to the mix, you are travelling along the road to madness... 

 

Chris. 

 

Yes, after looking through period photos I did wonder if printing photos back then caused a colour shift from green to brown. It was a reason for posting the question about the actual colour painted on the Army helicopters. Funny enough, I came across a FSM article today titled 44 shades of Olive Drab... I had to laugh at that one 😎

[Trenton guy]

Bit of eyewitness testimony. Spent 1968 in Pleiku. Saw many vehicles, primarily those of the 4th Infantry, and the helicopters of Holloway Army Air Field. 
They were the same color and the more brown shade. Already a modeler I’m fairly sure of my observations. The dust in the Central Highlands was very fine and red but the fresh colors appeared as described.

[11bravo]

Far as I can tell, their were three shades of OD used on Vietnam Hueys.   The first was the very early dark, glossy OD.   That went away by 66 or so.   It was replaced by the common brownish-tinted OD that most Vietnam Hueys wore.   This did fade over time and you can often see Hueys with darker OD replacement components.   Lastly, at end of war, we started to see a much darker, greener shade being applied.   It was seen on some US Army helos but was much more common on very late war VNAF Hueys.   This was a precursor to the CARC "helo drab" that was introduced in the early 80's.