My buddy's theory is this: When they were painting these rifles they were not putting a lot of science into the project, thus they grabbed any old OD paint on hand for the job. He figures there must have been tons of this paint left over from WWII and Korea.
According to THIS thread here not long back, the original 601 green paint was Moeller Zinc Chromate. It's a pretty bright green actually.
I had done set of stocks in OD that I was going to use on my 601 before I read that, then bought the Moeller Zinc Phosphate (slightly less toxic than the Chromate) instead.
Originally Posted By tstetz: According to THIS thread here not long back, the original 601 green paint was Moeller Zinc Chromate. It's a pretty bright green actually.
I had done set of stocks in OD that I was going to use on my 601 before I read that, then bought the Moeller Zinc Phosphate (slightly less toxic than the Chromate) instead.
Thanks for posting this, I missed the one referred to. I was going to contact John Thomas about sending him my rifle to finish up some little items (correct the rear site, etc) and see if he will re do my furniture.
My rifle was built out of a M16A1 kit from Apex, there are still some odds and end that need to be 601'ed. See below.
I used about a case of Lusterless Navy Gray when I painted my 51 Willys. It is decent paint but shake it very thoroughly or it will spit really bad. When I bought mine it came with two spray heads per can. If you are waiting more than twenty minutes between coats it may clog when you go to use it again. I also had one can that refused to spray at all.