[Lang]

Earlier in this thread there was some discussion on WW1 colours.

The 1906 US War Department Circular 66 specified the use of Olive Drab for army wagons and indicated that this color could be mixed using 6 pounds White Lead in Linseed Oil, 1 pound Raw Umber pigment, 1 pint Turpentine, and ½ pint Japan Drier. Surviving samples show it to be lighter that World War II Olive Drab. This color remained standard through World War I, and was authorized in the annual editions of the “Manual for Quartermaster Corps, United States Army” through 1917.

None of this sounds colour perfect match material or long lasting.

Without spectrographs in the production phase the WW2 colour search is also like chasing a shadow and any talk of colour can only be about code numbers. There are still possibly tens of thousands of old military vehicles with unblemished paint samples on them (under seats, beneath brackets, inside gloveboxes, unopened parts boxes etc) and we have endless discussions about what the actual colours were. Colour names 100% identified, colour schemes 100% identified (maybe not looking at Gina's post above), colour codes 100% identified, colour furmulas 100% identified - actual colours ???

They were eye matched in vast quantities by different manufacturers with different sources of supply of the same materials but of slightly different chemical properties. Even in black and white photos you can see vehicles are different shades. Some parts were dipped, some were sprayed (at different pressures and solvent mixes) some were brushed. You can get numerous shades using these different methods from the same can of stable modern paint in your shed let alone manufacturers continents apart in different temperatures using different brands in 1942.

Anything applied in workshops or the field post manufacture, forget it as any sort of bench mark.

The search for truth on this thread is really fascinating from an historical point of view and lots of people have worked very hard to provide answers.

Many people on the forum have said it before but it comes down to "There never was a large military fleet with a colour so uniform it would stand up to modern spectrographic matching and the best you can do is to find the colour that appeals to you in the "correct" range"

Unless we all choose to go with one of the many paint sellers who claim their product is "accurate WW2" (but different from the other "accurate WW2" sellers) we will continue to see vehicles at shows in a wide range of shades - exactly as it would have been in WW2.

Lang