Painting my huey? Help please

ISNJH · Post by **ISNJH** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:12 pm

I got two Vietnam GHQ Huey slicks and am working on painting them, I have them painted in olive drab but the green looks to light to me. How should I paint them to get the correct color?

voltigeur · Post by **voltigeur** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:27 pm

The actual color of the real thing is too dark at this scale.

Try blackwashing first. The black wash will run into the depressions and add detail and darken the overall color.

Hevier blackwash behind the jet exaust is a nice touch.

Also the south pacific fades the colors pretty rapidly.

Cav Dog · Post by **Cav Dog** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:29 pm

Who's OD did you use? It is hard to say without a picture, but maybe try a brown wash? The OD was more brown than green.

ISNJH · Post by **ISNJH** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 3:21 am

I used GHQ olive drab CLR5

retired_to_ft_living_room · Wed Aug 26, 2009 7:57 pm

Having been an Army aircraft mechanic, when we did repaints we added some black to the OD to make it a little darker to help with the fading. There is an actual US Army Helo Drab (FS 34031) manufactered by Testors.

WargameHub · Post by **WargameHub** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:42 pm

I primed mine in black and used Vallejo US Dark Green. I will double check the number when I get home but it looked a lot better for the UH-1 than any of the OD Greens I have used.

ferret701 · Post by **ferret701** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 2:50 pm

[quote="retired_to_ft_living_room"]Having been an Army aircraft mechanic, when we did repaints we added some black to the OD to make it a little darker to help with the fading. There is an actual US Army Helo Drab (FS 34031) manufactered by Testors.[/quote]

I have the Testors Helo Drab, which I now use for my modern (post-Vietnam) US helos. It looks great, but it is definitely very dark.

Pat Callahan

Cav Dog · Post by **Cav Dog** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:37 pm

The helo drab is a good representation of the non-IR reflective paint that the Army started using in the mid 70s when SA-7s appeared. It is a very dark OD and is responsible for many of the black helicopter rumors that conspiracy theorists are so fond of.