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Olive drab is not green - WHAT?
Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2016 4:55 pm
by Stokesy44
Just caught a cool vid on YT from Andy's hobby headquarters.
The vid was about fading olive drab. First thing he does is say 'olive drab is not green' and shows it by mixing yellow with black - and as if by magic, he's got olive drab right there! Then he says the way to lighten olive drab, therefore, is to add yellow. Never add white, add Tamiya XF60 dark yellow if you want to fade the paint.
Perfect timing too as I'm getting to the painting stage on my M10.
Now I can only speak for myself but whoa, I did not know that. I've learned something new today. Now I'm just hoping I don't have a Homer Simpson moment and forget something I already knew in its place!

Re: Olive drab is not green - WHAT?
Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2016 5:25 pm
by chalkyw
Primary green is created by mixing yellow and blue so I guess the black just makes it a darker greeny yellow which is what Olive Drab is....
works for me

Re: Olive drab is not green - WHAT?
Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2016 5:28 pm
by Lysus
Huh. I never would have guessed. Filing this fact away for future builds.
Re: Olive drab is not green - WHAT?
Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2016 5:54 pm
by RobBye
If I recall correctly, black results from mixing red and blue, so olive could be made by mixing red, blue, and yellow?

Re: Olive drab is not green - WHAT?
Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2016 5:55 pm
by Darklen
That's why when I preshade, I use yellow, not white. White looks too stark of a shade.
Re: Olive drab is not green - WHAT?
Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2016 7:45 pm
by RobertK
I think this youtube video is one of the easiest tutorials of to create our shadows and highlights. Having a color wheel around is actually very handy.
This video is not mine, just sharing it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYZWDEmLR90
Re: Olive drab is not green - WHAT?
Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2016 8:46 pm
by Stokesy44
Reminds me of that line in a UB40 song, 'the more I find out the less I know!'

Re: Olive drab is not green - WHAT?
Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2016 11:51 pm
by MightyDraw
Depending on the specific black, and how it was made sometimes the pigments/dyes are close to blue or contain some blue. This is true too with oil paints, I can't recall exactly (its been a while) but certain blacks in oil paint plus a yellow will result in a green. So its not exactly accurate to say that olive drab is "not green", you're just mixing yellow and a blue.
Re: Olive drab is not green - WHAT?
Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2016 12:06 am
by Vleugelmoer
Stokesy44 wrote:Reminds me of that line in a UB40 song, 'the more I find out the less I know!'

Here's a bit of trivia you might find interesting. UB40 was inspired by no other that one of the greatest thinkers of our time Albert Einstein himself. In writing this song.
Re: Olive drab is not green - WHAT?
Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2016 11:10 am
by cib2265
To add to the mystery, panzer grey is not blue.....its actually black
Sorry, couldnt help myself!
Here's a good article about OD - like the panzer grey hue shift to light blue, it looks like modellers have kept on adding green to make their drab (pun intended) vehicles stand out. Spanish style hasn't helped the matter of course, with modulation taking over as the fad too....
http://www.militarymodelling.com/news/a ... drab/4536/
Re: Olive drab is not green - WHAT?
Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2016 11:53 am
by WMH