German gray?

Tks guys for all the info on this subject. I don't remember who said it. But I'm going to try different colors for a couple of different companies to find out which one I like best. I've got tamiya and Vallejo. I know that the shades of gray are way different from each other. I've got two kits that I'm going to try them on. Again tks guys. I can always depend on y'all 

I see this time and time again where a modeler gets stuck on "the correct" shade. Don makes a great point . Even period pictures are inaccurate due to the age of the picture, lighting, film quality, weathering etc. I have a book on German armor showing a freshly painted German Grey vehicle that looks almost like black paint, then others dusted and dirty with much lighter tones as in Bishe's model. A slight variation in color is also possible between manufactures so after filters, weatherering, etc. the shade will be different. 

Another mistake is to use museum restored examples as a color reference. Most of the times their color selection is way off, using what paint stock they have available within their budget.

Beware of putting too much trust in color photographs.  Unless complex professional techniques are used in the reproduction of them,  color accuracy is not good in a reproduced photo.

Further, the original photo again is not to be trusted onless similar techniques are used.  I have seen many times different photos of the same prototype object showing different colors depending on color temperature of light source, angle of lighting, etc.  Further, while our eyes are sensitive to variations of color, they do not have good absolute color measurement.  So even seeing a vehicle first hand does not allow you to remember the color that accurately unless you have some color standards along when you view it.  So sometimes you just have to use judgement on what looks okay.

Srpuln,

I once asked the same question of a friend of mine (in my case it was a 251 in dark yellow) who is very knowledgeable on German armor and he told me to use Tamiya's spray can (TS-3) in that color because it was as close as he could find to being correct (at that time). In your case, I would bet that the instructions will call for their version of German Gray. It is correct as others have said. He also told me to remember two things about paint, one is the tonality can vary from batch to batch or from manufacturer to manufacturer. The second was that once it got into the field, all bets were off quality control wise because colors could shift depending on what the tubes of color were mixed with in the field. If your thing becomes German armor, try Tamiya's version on this one, then Vallejo on the next, and so on until you find one you like.

Bish

The offical colour was called schwarzgrau (Blackgrey) so that gives you an idea of how dark it was.

Yes, very dark, but I can see a greenish hue to your first picture, like the very dark (and glossy) olive green Canadian post-war vehicles were painted. What were the colours mixed to make panzer grey? And how would that colour fade? I see many models where panzer grey is faded to a distinct blue-grey for scale effect, but is that correct?  

I use Xtracolor enamels, they are matched to specific colour ranges. Tamiya German Grey would be close enough. Vallejo has the correct colour but i am not sure of the number.

Srpuln10

Would a spray over of buff take some of the shine and color down a bit? I guess I was expecting the color be more of a gray of today's gray. I guess this is one that I'll file away and consider it a learning experience of colors. Live and learn right. 

 

The offical colour was called schwarzgrau (Blackgrey) so that gives you an idea of how dark it was. As mentioned above the lighter apearnce could well be down to lighting used in the photo's. Or it could be the weathering. I would suggest the base coat, followed by some dry brusing of the high points. Buff can give a good representaion of dust.

This is my 251 i built earlier in the year. First, the paint before any weathering.

And this is after weathering.

Compressoman speaks wisdom, follow his good advice and you won't go wrong.

What color is gray anyway?  I just did a quick count of my paint 'ready service' locker and counted 31 different grays out of 110 paints. 

I would paint the vehicle the recommended color, and then lighten the base color a little and spray a light blotchy coat over that. You may do this a couple of times with various lightened mixtures. If you find that it goes off the rails or gets too contrasty, you can always spray a very light coat of the original mix and tone it back down.

Would a spray over of buff take some of the shine and color down a bit? I guess I was expecting the color be more of a gray of today's gray. I guess this is one that I'll file away and consider it a learning experience of colors. Live and learn right. 

I didn't give thought to the lights making it lighter. They does make a lot of sense. 

Veterans first hand recollection isn't very valuable. 10 % of men are colorblind, and most of the rest of us don't have a very high sensitivity to color.

Panzergrau RAL 7021 is a well documented color. If you are going for total accuracy, you'd need a physical chip.

Otherwise people like Mike (Bish) and Carlos (Stik) are worth listening to.

Colors apparently hadn't been invented yet in 1939- there's a lack of photographic evidence...

I can't remember the website, but I remember reading an article years ago by a modeller whose father-in-law had served in the Wehrmacht. When shown the author's models, the elder man said that the shade of grey used to paint vehicles was somewhat greener than modellers tend to portray. 

If you’re planning on making a model of a model, use a lighter gray. But that is based off a scale model and professional type lighting. The brightness of the lights will make the subject look lighter. 

Tamiya German Gray is a decent take on the RAL color used on German vehicles in the first half of WWII. The actual color when new was almost black.

Many weathering techniques can be used to lighten up the dark base color to give it that artistic appearance currently in vogue. 

I'm not talking about the box art. I'm talking about the pic of a finished product on a site like scale hobbyist or hobbylinc. It just looks like a lighter gray than tamiya German gray. 

Are you referring to the photo on the box art. I would not go off that. It should be Panzer Grey, which is very dark. Tamiya's German grey is a good match.