Logan Green Paint Color

[AmericanMachinist]

Does anyone know the proper green paint color for a wartime Logan 200? It's very dull green, almost an OD green or maybe a bit darker. I see references online to a couple shades of blue. Even Logan's FAQs mention the blue-grays but not green, from what I've seen.

Thanks!

 

[matthewsx]

I can't give you the exact color but I am happy with the Rustoleum Sage Green I painted my Craftsman recently.





John

 

[Nogoingback]

Does anyone know the proper green paint color for a wartime Logan 200? It's very dull green, almost an OD green or maybe a bit darker. I see references online to a couple shades of blue. Even Logan's FAQs mention the blue-grays but not green, from what I've seen.

Thanks!

So far I have not seen anyone mention a color match for the war time green. It might be a long shot, but you could email Logan and
ask Scott Logan if he has any idea, (assuming they're open of course). It's presumably some sort of OD green, but it's not hard to
imagine that during WWII no one was too fussy about the exact shade. Folks that restore WWII vehicles might know more about
paint colors of that era.

 

[AmericanMachinist]

I received a reply from Logan.

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Logan Engineering Co. did not use green for the paint on their lathes, except as a customer’s special order, which we would have no record of.
==========

 

[matthewsx]

Some folks see the green/gray as just gray. You might ask about gray paint....

 

[francist]

It's very dull green, almost an OD green

Where on the machine are you referencing the colour from?

The reason I ask is there’s a couple things that can happen to oil based paint as it ages. One is that it discolours to the warmer amber and brown sides from prolonged contact with oils on the surface. In this case of course, those would be machine oils and over time can tint the outer skin of the paint to a less-than-true representation of the original. This would typically present a little patchy and darker in crevices and corners, so you’d probably notice that.

The second thing though is that oil paint does a peculiar thing when covered and sheltered from exposure to light for long periods. It will yellow, and quite significantly, which can make blues appear green and clear greys appear olive. So, in the case of a machine tool, choosing a reference from behind a badge or label that’s never been off the machine before can actually be further away from the true colour than that which has been exposed to light all along. It’s a bit counter intuitive I know, but I have seen it occur and on surfaces which I myself have painted twenty or thirty years earlier and know what they started like.

So, I’m not saying your Logan isn’t the colour you say it is, but just be aware of how easy it is to be fooled. A light scraping with an razor blade in a small, inconspicuous spot can often point you in the more true direction. I’ve done a fair bit of colour sampling for architectural restorations and it’s a fascinating field to play in, but tricky!

-frank

 

[Nogoingback]

There were wartime Logans painted green: mine in the picture above is an example. Mine was actually painted the usual
Logan blue grey and another coat of green painted over the top. The blue grey shows quite distinctly inside the bed and geartrain cover. The two colors are very different. Mine was built in 1944, so it's a reasonable assumption that it was an
Army contract lathe painted in a shade of OD green. Other folks occasionally report the same paint scheme on WWII
vintage Logans.