I am entering a new area figure painting i did some small scale figures but now i want to do more figures. I have three sets of WW2 figures sets to paint i have matched the boots , soles, flesh, weapons and some of the other colors needed but i am having trouble with the uniforms and personal gear and all the strapping for it i bought the greens called for but they do not match even remotely and the color called for the gear and webbing again doesn't match so what colors do i need?

I am thinking a few shades of OD maybe light and medium for the uniforms but the gear and webbing ?

By OD green I assume you are talking about US figures, but what time period, theater and year or uniform style? Is there a specific set you are working with?

There was a wide variety of greens, browns, and tans used for US uniforms and gear during WW2, and only the metal components would really be Olive Drab as depicted by model paint companies. The early war temperate uniforms were brown wool shirt and pants worn with the tan Parsons Jacket (named for officer who designed it). Hot weather combat uniforms were green herringbone twill.
The M43 temperate uniform was distinctly greener with a new uniform jacket and matching pants. Early batches were sateen fabric, later ones were dull finish poplin. In 1944, a new field jacket based on the British Battle Dress jacket was introduced, and dubbed the Ike Jacket, because Eisenhower was an early adopter. It was rarely seen during the war, as stocks of older uniforms were used up first, but it became common immediately after the war.
And, just to make things interesting, the specific shades varied from batch to batch. No two dye lots ever quite match--ever try to match a pair of navy blue pants with a navy blue sports coat that wasn't made from the same fabric? And once in service, the fabric fades. So you'll need to do a lot of mixing--ideally, no two items of uniform will ever quite match, since they were usually from different production batches (except for a privately tailored officer's uniform, fairly rare in the US Army, but common in other countries).
Europa Militaria publishes some useful photo books on military uniforms, showing live models wearing a full set of gear, and that will give you a much clearer idea of the range of colors used.

Yes they are american figures from 1943-45 i have no area i am looking to put them as far as a place in time and a certain place in the country so i really dont need to be 100% accurate. i only plan on doing them all the same really with a few shade of od for the uniforms to mix newer with some older faded uniforms i'm not looking to go all ou and make show winners or any thing. So i just need standard colors i know there are not standard color just the typical ones for the OD in a few shads for the uniforms and i just need a paint color for the personal gear and webbing.

Since you're not:




try here: http://www.hat.com/ColorsWWII.html

If you need to fade colours you can always mix in some lighter tones.

Life Color sells sets of uniform colors for different nationalities. The German WWII uniforms have 2 sets of 6 colors and there are a couple different variations of US uniform colors. I have several of the sets and am pleased with the colors and Life Color paint in general. The one gripe I (and others) have about Life Color paint is that single bottles seem difficult to find in stock while the sets seem readily available. I think the cry is finally being heard by vendors and more are stocking it. I recently noticed Red Frog advertises them now and I know Sprue Brothers stocks the sets. People seem to like the colors in relation to perceptions of what's accurate.

(How's that last sentence for a diplomatic way to say the colors are pretty damn close to correct without actually saying they are accurate and incurring the wrath of the "Nobody knows for sure!" set )

Also Vallejo's Panzer Aces sets are pretty nice as well. Don't let the Panzer in the name fool you into thinking they are only German colors or limited to the vehicles.

Great site! Thank you for sharing! I went through some of the paint numbers and compared them to my paint database. I noticed that some colors had numbers that matched the small square cross section bottles of Testors enamel I have and others matched the Testors Model Master brand of paint I have. While I have a good selection of both, neither is all inclusive. It appears that the paint number and color are the same with Testors and Testors Model Master which would make sense. I wonder if each name carries the full line of colors so that the main difference is the quantity of paint with Testors name containing half that of the Model Master name. I thought initially that they didn't overlap but minimally at best. I'll have to look into that further.

Thank you i will try those colors out and see what i can get since i just want them to look like the typical band of brothers style i think those colors will work well.

Jim,
Great site for painting army colors. I was looking for colors to paint Japanese troops. Found it thanks to you. great job

Tom