".....In summary, there were many different shades/hues/colours of OD, all dependant on the manufacturer, how it was painted on, temperature, amount of thinners used, etc, etc.... My goal was to imagine if I time warped back to 194x my truck wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb on any airfield or beach, etc... but the absolute bottom line is paint your vehicle the colour YOU like. ......
While I agree with the last part of this post.....I must disagree with the first.
Simply put...there was only one "color" of OD paint used on production vehicles in WW II no matter who the manufacturer was .
It was "Lusterless Olive Drab" later designated "Lusterless Olive Drab No. 319"
Now , I am talking about PRODUCTION. ......not what some GI did in England or Timbucktu......
I have spent over 20 years researching Lusterless Olive Drab and have original cans of WW II dated paint. We have had this paint spectrographed and it matches the Govt. spectrograph color standards from WW II.
I have original paint chips and color cards and have done extensive research in the National Archives. In addition several other researchers have worked with me and assembled an enormous amount of data on this subject.
All paint used by the vehicle manufacturers in WW II had to pass very rigid specifications. Govt. inspectors would NOT accept paint that did not meet these standards..period! All that "there was a war on and they did whatever they had to" is just so much nonsense.
The color had to match and there were exact specifications on how to paint, dry and view the samples to make sure the color matched the Govt. specs.
The paint manufacturers knew this and took great pains to match the specs because if the paint was not to specs. it would not be accepted (and paid for).
Remember, mixing paint is like cooking....once you have determined the final product and the measurements of the components (ingredients ) you simply use the exact same components and measurements each and every time and the final product comes out exactly the same. I have copies of original Ford Motor Co. Paint mixing formulas for their paint...they are in gallon and 1,000 gallon lots. Ford mixed paint in 1,000 gallon batches for the production lines and the exact weights of each and every component is listed on them (paint is mixed by weight and not volume)
There is no "early vs late" Lusterless Olive Drab...all were the same color. There were "other" green paints used in WW II ...for the engineers, camouflage, ammo cans and the like but not for production vehicles.
The excellent photo at the start of this thread is of two vehicles that have been repainted..where or by who and with what paint is unknown but it is certain that they are not the factory applied paint that they were delivered with...the white numbers are the giveaway....all WW II vehicles were delivered with Blue Drab numbers.
I have worked with a US paint producer to help him produce a paint that is absolutely correct and matches the original Lusterless Olive Drab specifications as to color and also matches original WW II L.O.D.
If you are interested it is TM-9 products and this paint is Shade No. 8. ( I have no connection to TM-9 except the owner is a friend and fellow researcher)
So, if you are restoring a WW II vehicle to original condition then there is only one color paint. If you are "restoring" a vehicle to a "as used..somewhere in WW II" then there could and may be differences in the color of Olive Drab.
Oh..and about matching "spare parts" to colors....it must be remembered that replacement parts were often painted with re-claimed paint and color can vary. Willys did this during AND after WW II and the frames on MB's were painted with re-claimed paint.
If you match paint to replacement parts..then you can only say that this paint "matches replacement parts"....
If you match paint to the original paint, from several manufacturers, and have it matched by spectrograph, compared to the original 3-1 Color Card...then you can say you have matched WW II Lusterless Olive Drab.
Of course, if anyone can produce any hard data that refutes this...I would be happy to see it.