Re: Rit Dye mixtures military colors
Color theory:
Colors are mixtures of primaries, tints are white with primaries added, and shades are mixtures of primaries with black added.
Once, military camos were shades; but with the advent of desert camos, now tints are also included.
Olive is a shade made from brown (red, blue, and yellow), and some black to tone/shade it down. Another approach is maroon (red, black) and green (blue, yellow).
The desert tints are brown (as above) with white added. Some red may improve the tint.
Not familiar with Ranger Green, but I suspect it's green (blue, yellow) with a bit of black. Light leaf green/charteuse is green with an abundance of yellow.
Another way of looking at camo colors is to take them as grays with colors added.
Colors will darken upon drying. Colors intended for shaded contexts need to be lighter, to offset reduced light intensity. Straight lines should be avoided, and objects with a regular up/down orientation will benefit from lighter shades on the lower surface. Personally, I doubt that camo pattern components smaller than 1MOA at the expected minimum distance are effective.
When blending paints, I prefer to work with just the three primaries, black, and white. For texture I prefer to clearcoat with one of the (gloss, semi-gloss, and flat) Minwax Helmsman Water-Based Spar finishes, which also contain UV absorbers that reduce fade.
Greg
