Excuse this silly question, but this is my first venture into WWII armour. Doing a Flakverling from Tamiya. The colour code should have been Humbrol Matt 67 German Tank Grey but to my inexperienced eye that looks too dark (Left shield) while the Dark Grey on the right looks better or more accurate to me:


What doe you guys think? Is there a better/closer Humbrol enamel I should be using?

This is hard to judge from pics due to variations in lighting and exposure and camera type etc etc..but I always trust my eye. What color is the plastic? if it's a dark color your paint will be a bit dark. If not, well, trust your eye.

Thanks Gary, and yes, the pic is a poor quality. The plastic is a dark grey almost like that on the right. The recommended colour is very close to black to me...

Did you spray or brush paint??

the undercoat or base color will affect the tone of your top paint, in this case making it darker. I actually use that on my vehicles, spraying flat black into the deep places and sharp seams so that when I spray the main color I get darker tones in those places.
A lot of guys use a primer coat to even things out and give a neutral base for their paint, usually a medium to light grey. since your model is molded in a dark grey you might consider an overall grey primer to give that neutral base to paint on and get a more true color.
If you don't want to go through that step, just go lighter with your paint and drive on..trust your eye.

Sean,
I use Rustoleum rattle can Gray primer to get my german dark grey, I will usually add a black wash to it as well
Here is an example over Tamiyas yellow plastic before the wash

After a wash and some additional weathering

Hope that helps

Sean;

German WWII "dunkelgrau" (RAL 7021), the standard base (and only one authorized for European theater use through 1942) color used on all German AFV and other military vehicles, big guns, etc. per regulations from Aug 1940 was a dark gray with slight bluish or greenish tint (depending on one's color vision and interpretation! ). It was NOT a simple mix of black and white (i.e., a "neutral gray"), so cannot realistically be represented by any straight "gray" created along that simple gray scale.

How dark was it? That Q has been up, down, and all-around on modeling sites for years! Suffice to say that folks have argued for it being anywhere from "almost black" to something substantially lighter than most model-paint colors offered to represent this essential German color. And I'll stay well clear of the complicated "scale-effect" discussions, Thank You!

I personally find the Tamiya XF-63 "acrylic" pretty nice as a base right from the bottle. I sometimes add in a small amount of light deck-tan or white plus "dark yellow" to lighten it just a little bit, when doing some post-shading and variation on the coat to show some fading.

I also find the Testor's ModelMaster #2094 "schwartzgrau 1939 - 43" matt enamel to be pretty pleasing. Again, I sometimes add in some buff or white to lighten things a tad.

Each of these colors offers an interpretation of the tinted dark gray.

I generally apply these over a very dark Floquil "weathered black" or "engine black" pre-shade & primer coat. As it's dark gray over "black", things can indeed come off being a little dark, but my weathering goes heavily to light dust and "earth" shading, so...

See the below Pz 38(t) E/F painted using the Tamiya XF-63 with very little add-in applied over the Floquil weathered black and fairly heavily "dusted" with first a light over-spray of Tamiya flat earth to hi-light dirtier areas and later a bit of light artist's chalks applied as real dust.

Note that what we see HERE in this pic differs from what we see in other light and with other back-grounds. Take a look at this tank in the Track-Link galleries to see...

Maybe the points being, what you applied as the base (dunkelgrau) may well get quite modified as you go along! And YOU want to be pleased with what you get, in the end!



Cheers!

Bob

Sean,

This model was sprayed with Humbrol 67 over a black primer, followed by several progressively lighter dry brushes with Humbrol 67/white. As you can see it comes up much lighter. Are you hand painting with a brush? This will give a denser coat. Also ensure you stir the paint well or you may get a medium (as in solvent) heavy coat which will dry slightly shiny and darker.

Sean

Don't get hung up on the color. Even the Germans that were so picky with amongst other things,their paints had variations from even within the same manufacturer. I have seen period pictures of tanks painted in Panzer Grey that almost looked black. The lighting, weathering and film quality also will offer a different view.

I use lifecolor's German dark gray on my pre43 German Armor. Personally, I like it dark.

Here is an example of it on a DML panzer III ausf. G (pre-weathered).

Hi Sean:

In the end it is your kit, so you should get to do what makes you happy. But if you would consider my suggestion you should not be overly concerned with this. Because there are dozens of things that effect what color something is. There is fading from the sun. How sunny is it today? How much cloud cover is there? There is how many layers of dust? How many times has the crew washed it? Which batch of paint was used. Ultimately I would suggest that there is not a "perfect" or "correct" dark grey as there was just to many things effecting what something looked like on any particular day. To me both colors look good, and you should be able to use either of them and still be correct.

Gary

Thanks everyone for those helpful and informative replies and the posted example pics. There is quite a difference...

I've gone for the lighter "dark grey" and this is how it currently looks:





Now to start weathering.

Again, thanks for all the advice
Sean