"Panzer Grey in 6mm query" Topic

I have started painting my Heroics and Ros 1/300 early war German battle group. Infantry are going fine but its been a while since I painted any micro armour.

I took the advice on the excellent Ritter Kreig site and primed in white and then used a wash of grey over the top. I also lightened the grey to take into account the scale effect. I'm using Vallejo German Grey with about 20-25% off white added. under the painting light it looks fine but under normal artificial light after a black pin wash it looks very dark.

So the question is how light do others make their initial grey before pin washing and highlighting for micro armour? The images on Ritter Kreig look like they are almost a dove grey but it doesn't seem right to start with such a pale tone. Any and all advice gratefully accepted.

I've found I do have to go for a fairly light grey when painting Panzer Grey in 6mm.

Even a medium grey looks fine when examined up close under my painting light, but turns out looking almost black on the game table.

Very, very light. The wash will likely stain the paint a bit. The pre-wash effect I strive for is just a smudge darker than the grey TMP uses on its sidebar menu (look to the left). The was will stain the paint a bit darker and add in some shadows.

One deceptive thing: the lighter your basecoat is, the more the wash will change it. In other words, when the right answer is medium gray, the base-coat will look just a little off. But when the right answer is very light gray (and I agree with above), it will look really wrong before it is washed.

I painted these with drybrush and washes. The last DB coat is WHITE. Straight bottle white. 6mm really needs to be light-colored!

go very light grey, as bob in Edmonton said. and as pigasuspig said, reserve final judgement until after the wash has dried.

the effect is even worse if you are using an enamel weathering system like AK interactive. after relearning to paing with GW style washes a few years ago, i had to re-adjust myself even further along these lines for the AK washes and filters.

For 3mm I started with German Grey and then dry-brushed Neutral Grey, washed black and final light DB of Light Grey (very dry).

It isn't lightness that works well in small scales, it is contrasts.

Those are Exodus Wars pig, yes ? Nice job !

Thanks guys very light grey it is then. I'll report results later.