Olive drab paint

[Aerco]

I am torn between using an authentic olive drab, which was as flat as a chalkboard and a semi-gloss like that available from Polyfiber. My preference at the moment is for the Polyfiber system. Going the ceconite route, there are flat olive drab dopes available. The advantage of the polyfiber, semigloss paint is that that I can use Poly-Tone finishes on both the fabric and metal portions and they should match. A pet peeve of mine is mismatched paints and hues, although this did occur all the time during the war.

Or is there a clear, flat topcoat I can use over any other system (fabric and metal) to cut the gloss down? Any ideas?

[Paul Agaliotis]

Peter,
I'm a fan of the flat OD paint. There are flattening additives for enamels that might work with dope. Polyfiber is vinyl based and they may have a product you could use. Head over to Flabob and ask them, I've used their stuff in the past but never had a reason to ask for flatteners. A friend of mine recently used it to cover a canoe and it worked for that.
Paul

[Aerco]

Ah! Polyfiber does have a flattening agent that works with all their products! Problem solved.

[FlyingWrench]

We have a Stinson L-5 in the shop for rebuild using the Polyfiber. Our painter is using the flattening agent for the appearance of originality per the owner. So far he has done the wings and they look good. I'll try and post pics.


Cheers,
Dave

[Doc]

When I recovered the rudder for Texas Raiders (1945 Boeing B-17G) 18 months ago I used the Poly-Fiber process and had to color match the Poly-Tone to agree with the rest of the olive drab on the aircraft. Not only did Consolidated Coatings custom color match, but they flattened the paint to exactly correspond with the tone. hue and finish of the sample I sent to them. A simple phone call to them should yield advice on how to flatten your color. Regarding mismatched hues, finish, etc. My L-3B has three different hues of OD on it...it actually looks realistic from a field repair sort of view (LOL). Doc

[Aerco]

Regarding mismatched hues, finish, etc. My L-3B has three different hues of OD on it...it actually looks realistic from a field repair sort of view (LOL). Doc

Yes, you're quite right - it shouldn't matter all that much, there was a huge variety of shades from different batches. And I am not trying to produce some museum queen either; a lot of the sheetmetal parts could be made new from scratch, but I actually like the slight wrinkles and small dents on the original parts! I am sure all these airplanes had various modifications and field repairs done to them so that no two were alike. I have yet to see two original photos of identical instrument panels for example, so I won't worry to much about the exact shade of paint.

Need to pick up my first gallon from Aircraft Spruce tomorrow - ah, the joys of working about two miles down the road from them!