I use Tamiya Acrylics. But there OD seems so dark, almost black. Don't understand why they made this color so dark. Testors, Humbrol etc there OD looks the way OD should.

Any suggestions on what to mix with Tamiya OD to get a more OD shade. I tried the OD as the base coat and then mixed white, but then the color came out grey!

PLEASE HELP!

IMHO Tamiya is probably the best out of the bottle OD for ww2 vehilcles. If you want to lighten the colour use Tamiya Desert Yellow. Be careful it doesnt take much to lighten it . HTH
cheers,
Bryan

Michael, I have to agree with Bryan on this, been there myself too, Bro...mix a little at a time, and like ex royal said, just a little yellow...
Gunny

Found the same problem with Tamiya OD being to dark. I mix in yellow, bit at a time! I have heard about using Desert sand but have not tried it. If you mix in to much Yellow it will give a very olive colour so just a bit at a time.

Doug

I use it right out of the bottle and it looks fine to me.

Since I have no first hand experience as to what it looked like in WW2 I go with whats in the bottle.

However i do like to fade it a bit after the first coat to give the model some depth.

As the others have said, actual US OD was really dark when fresh. dust and sun weather it (dust, I suspect mostly) to the lighter shade we are used to seeing. The reason is that OD really isn't a green, pre se. It is mixed from black and yellow ocre paints. No blue at all.



So you can see why adding white will get you a grey shade; it is mixing with the black in the OD. Adding yellow, whether pure yellow or a yellow ocre or sand yellow or the like will lighten the OD more naturally.

HTH

Paul

What you are using out of the bottle is not correct. During World War II and the time surrounding it, the pigments on OD varied a lot, but no where near what Tamiya provides. For reference to the relatively correct color, look at Model Masters (which is what I always use for OD). As everyone mentioned, adding a minute amount of yellow helps.


That being said, I found that the bottle color is great for showing wet OD uniforms and as a good (if not a little thick) dark base coat .

Jeff

Thanks Jeff,

I am finishing up a Chaffee right now and I will try painting it with MM OD and see how it looks compared to the Sherman I painted last week in Tamiya OD.

I just build for me so I am not overly picky about colour shades but I am game to trying something new.

I suggest picking up Vol.32 No.3 March 2002 issue of Military Modelling. Steve Zaloga does a very comprehensive study of WW2 U.S OD green. He compares all the current paints on the market Acrylic and enamel and his findings are quite convincing to me. Essentially it breaks down like this
Acrylics
Poly Scale 505370 (lighter) Ok For wartime OD
Model Air 043 (lighter,greyer) Ok For wartime OD
Tamiya XF62 (Best Match for wartime OD) Should be lightend with a bit of ochre
Gunze Sanygyo (too light, too gree) Ok for wartime, a bit vivid
Model Master 4728 (Very light, too grey-green) Too light
Model Master 613 (Light, too grey) Too grey for use

Enamels
Model Master 1711 (close to 1968 Fs595A) Ok for wartime OD
MOdel Master 2050 (Light, greyer than w/t od) Too Grey
Humbrol 155 ( Light, greener than w/t OD) Too Green

These are Steven Zaloga's findings but in my experience with most of these paints I would tend to agree with him. If you can find the back issue or someone to give you a copy of the article it is well worth reading. Its worth it if you build ww2 OD vehicles.
Cheers,
Bryan

Thanks for posting that Bryan.

Very interesting! I have recently been doing alot of OD subjects.

Seems like the kind of thing that invites endless debate.

I suppose being slightly colour blind doesn't help
either. :-)