When I was looking at the interior of a German armor I noticed it had a gray with a greenish tint to it, so when I primed my interior of my model, the primer itself looked like the gray on that picture, so I was wondering if I could thin down my green to let the gray still show thru. Anybody have any sugestions on how to do this, or should I try to mix up a gray and green to try to simulate this color. Thank You in advance Straightedge

Im not sure about what youre meaning to do. But you can not thin down paint as much as you would like to. Theres a line not to cross when the amount of thinning disables the pigment to bound.

If you would like to have trasparant paint its better to thin it as normal and mix it with warnish until it has the transparancy of youre liking. Gloss or flat depending on the end result of your choice.

You could always add a tint to Tamiya X22 satin acrylic, which would then be transparent?
Or add a tint to Tamiya 'Smoke'
Or Humbrol matt varnish?
There's lots of possibilities.

Vinnie

do you mean like something like future to carry it out, or something all different, I'm finding this modeling armor is way harder then cars and trucks, there just pick a color you like and go with it, but here you can't have an orange tank.

I would just add a very small amount of Tamiya X-25 to Tamiya X-22 until the desired colour is achieved, then try this over the grey plastic to see what it looks like.

Vinnie

All I have now is the 1/4 oz. enamels from testors in green, and the light gray primer was testors enamel to, so they are 1164 flat green, and 1165 flat olive, the 1164 looks the closest, that is the one I was hoping to make so where the gray shows thru, cause when looking at them pictures they looked like gray with a slight greenish tint to it, that is why after seeing the primer looking the same shade I need, I was in hopes of saving money by trying to make this 1164 a clear green so the gray shows thru, and hoping it looked the same as the pictures I saw of the German interiors

If it's a 'normal' acrylic or enamel I don't think you'll be able to make it transparent. But hey! Experiment and see what you can make of it! Try with tiny amounts, perhaps in the blister trays that asprin etc. come in. You never know! Good luck!

Vinnie

Well Vinnie, you been a big help, I done what you suggested, sense I had some sprue with over spray from spraying the small parts, I cut off a section that had the gray primer, then I found an egg carton that was mty, and poured as little of future I could, then took a small flat brush and dipped it in the flat green then dipped it into the future, then took another piece of sprue and stirred it as much as I could, then painted the gray sprue, and it came out transparent, so now that sprue is gray with a greenish tint. The only trouble is, I wish I could find that original picture to see if I got the right shade. I know I seen it here, where somebody posted a URL to go to another site that had modern pictures of some German interiors, cause all the old pictures are in black and white. The way I remember the interior it looked as though it was done in the field, that they probably figured the gray was to bright, so I figured they didn't have to much to choose from, so it looked as though they used some of the green they used on the camo job outside to mix with the gray on the inside, which seemed like a good idea to me, that way it was still bright for them to see on the inside, but not to bright for others to see from the outside. I tried the search here but I guess I don't know how to work that yet, cause I kept on striking out. Oh and thank you to Toke, you were right on not being able to thin it as much as I'd like without the help of a varnish.

Straightedge,
The only picture I could find was the following :
However after it is the link to a page that discusses your grey/green and it's possible origins, thought you might find it interesting!




http://miniatures.de/html/int/camouflageWi.html

Vinnie

Another thing you can try is. You can take some food coloring and put it into some future. I have read the is works great as a clear paint. Kind of act as an ink more than anything.
People have used this to tint canopies on Aircraft, I haven't tried it yet, but keep that one on file in case I need to tint any clear parts.. Just add a drop at a time til you get the darkness you want.
Hope this helps ya out.
Paul

Thats a pretty good idea Paul, I'll look thru the cuboards and see just what colors I have, cause looking at your picture it looks as though it has some blue to it, that isn't the same picture I seen before, the one I seen before was a half track where the roof extented over the drivers compartment, but in the artical with them pictures they said most of their armor had that on the interior. They also said you could find all gray, or even the base color, but the majority had the gray with a greenish tint. I guess your picture, is another little variant, I guess they mostly had to paint them in the field, and I guess anything goes, but then again it might be the computer, cause trying to find the right color for that French aircraft carrier, I went to three different sites, and found three different colors for the same paint number, cause maybe the food color might work better, cause with the paint you got to stir it real good, then paint it right away, the sprue I painted, now it turned out ok, but later on the remaining paint in my little mixing bowl started to separate. The paint on the sprue after looking at it when it dried, I at first thought it all disappeared, until I put another piece next to it then I could see the greenish tint to what I was looking for. So thanks again Paul.
Kerry