Acrylic Color OVERLORD OLIVE

An olive from the summer of forty-four

The name OVERLORD OLIVE refers to the Normandy landings and the shade corresponds to that: a brownish green of the kind the trucks, jeeps, tanks and crates of Allied units carried. Against a pure green it is more faded and against a khaki cooler in turn, which is exactly the position in which a vehicle does not look like a toy but like a machine with a few hundred kilometers of field road behind it.

For large areas an airbrush is the surest path. The paint is thinned gradually, in drops, until it starts to leave the nozzle smoothly, and it is laid in three to four passes instead of one heavy one. The result is a smooth area without grain and without unevenness, on which decals and the subsequent layer of washes then hold well.

• A green with a brown lower tone, typical of Allied equipment
• Suitable for large areas of vehicles and for small gear
• Seventeen milliliters in a bottle with a dropper
• It thins with water or with a thinner for acrylics
• Matte even without a subsequent varnish

So that a model does not look flat, the shade is used as the middle value and the upper surfaces are brightened. Roofs, fenders and upper armor get a noticeably lighter tone, the sides stay in the original color and the lower parts are pulled downward with a brown. The difference must not be exaggerated, otherwise the impression of a painted backdrop arises.

The last step belongs to a matte varnish, if solvent-based washes were used. The shade itself is matte, but the varnish unifies the surface after the intervention of various products and protects the edges from abrasion when handling the model.