Mixing Olive Drab paint

[OgdenBob]

Aw, this is all good to know. I've had so so luck mixing with craft paints, mostly greens, but I can't wait to give this a try. Thanks all!




Bob

[Miles Linnabery]

In the American Civil War OD green showed up. From a officer's manual of 1862 there is a recipe for making the paint, it used lamp black and burnt umber and other things. Ever wonder why for years at Gettysburg the cannon carriages where painted Mustard yellow? If you mix it using raw umber rather than Burnt umber it isn't OD green.
Experimental Archaeology, and Living History
Enjoy
Miles

[waynemac]

Originally Posted by OgdenBob

Aw, this is all good to know. I've had so so luck mixing with craft paints, mostly greens, but I can't wait to give this a try. Thanks all!




Bob

Bob,
For painting edges, I buy acrylic paints in large tubes at craft stores like Michaels. I only buy basic colors - white, black, red, blue, yellow. With these, I can mix any color I want, and even fine-tune it. I mix the paints in small plastic palletes, and put the mix in tiny plastic tubs than come in strings of eight or so. The lids are fairly tight but even so, I have to throw out some when they do dry up - no great loss - I just mix some more.
Wayne

[OgdenBob]

Originally Posted by waynemac

Bob,
For painting edges, I buy acrylic paints in large tubes at craft stores like Michaels. I only buy basic colors - white, black, red, blue, yellow. With these, I can mix any color I want, and even fine-tune it. I mix the paints in small plastic palletes, and put the mix in tiny plastic tubs than come in strings of eight or so. The lids are fairly tight but even so, I have to throw out some when they do dry up - no great loss - I just mix some more.
Wayne

Thanks Wayne!




Bob

[Kevin WS]

You can also get watercolours in tubes (just like oils) which you can mix. You can let the mix dry and just add some water when you next want to paint on!

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Interesting discussion on the olive drab.

Bob - don't worry too much regarding your so-so results - remember in real life, there are often many shades and variations of basic colour (due to weathering, paint mixes, application methods, paint finish, light etc).

And don't forget the "scale effect" as well - rather than repeat myself have a look here where I wrote a post on "Scale Model Colours".

Scale Model Colours

[FRD]

That's a good move Kevin!

[Larry R.]

Thanks to all for the interesting and useful information!

[Burning Beard]

My father was a pilot in WWII, and also a sign painter, so he paid attention to this stuff. He said OD was made of black and yellow, because they were the most commonly available and little used colors.

[Moneyec]

While the thread may be two years old, your insights on color mixing remain relevant and valuable for hobbyists interested in achieving accurate military shades like olive drab.

[airdave]

In paint black is non-existent.
Real Black is a very very very very dark blue.

When I airbrushed, to make something look blacker (eg Batman's cape) I just added blue.
Blue overtint, blue patches, blue highlights.
The eye is fooled and sees a darker black, but there is the underlying reality that proper black paint is dark blue, or has an extremely high blue content.

Blue and yellow make green.

What blows my mind is how RGB TVs work.
Your TV has pixels made from three little LEDs, one Red, one Green and one Blue.
When they all light up, you see white! ...magic!!
Turn them all off, and they are grey.
But add a little backlight, and you see black. ...super magic!!