Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild

[Jacques Reed]

Hi David,

Transformer Olive Drab- Now that's another interesting name for a colour. If the can was from the eighties it may have been used to paint kids' toys!

All joking aside, the current Australian Army Olive Drab, US Federal Standards 595B colour 34088, is close numerically to WW2 US Olive Drab which is colour 34087.

I checked my 1984 edition of FS 595a which is a reference book of all colours used by the US government at that time. Surprisingly colour chip 34088 was not listed then.

From FS 595a: "The last three digits indicate the approximate order of increasing (diffuse) reflectance and are assigned non-consecutively to provide numbers between for future use."
Basically as the last three digits of the chips gets higher the colour gets lighter so today's Australian FS 34088 Olive Drab would be lighter (more reflectance) than WW2 US Olive Drab FS 34087.

It doesn't answer any questions about Australian WW2 Khaki Green but it may be of interest to members for the present day comparisons.

Cheers,