Thanks for the welcome, guys. I'll try to get a pic posted sometime :) I figured out part of the answer, in that the germans apparently made many of their large caliber shells out of aluminum. As for the projectile itself, well, I'm just running on the notion that it has the appearance of raw steel, and use Tamiya field blue. (It's a very deep gray blue. I work at a steel fabricator, and I can tell you that raw, unpolished steel turns more bluish than the black of gun metal). Anyway, if I'm wrong, I can always go back and redo it. I'll be sure to include it in the pic and you guys can critique. Thanks!