Mr. Color - tmavě šedá (2)

The second dark gray in the series

The digit in brackets after the name says nothing about gloss or saturation. It distinguishes two different dark gray shades that the manufacturer lists under adjacent numbers and between which there is a perceptible difference in cast. This one is the more neutral of the two, with no pronounced shift toward blue.

A neutral dark gray is a workhorse on the bench, one you will reach for more often than for most other bottles. It suits landing gear bays, armament and gun barrels, rubber parts, shading engraved lines, a dark base under metallic shades or a starting tone for preshading before a covering color goes on.

Because the tone is neutral, it can be mixed without risk. A drop into any color will lower its brightness without shifting it into another shade, which is exactly what is wanted when tinting shadows. Conversely, adding white gives you a whole scale of medium grays for modulating surfaces.

The bottle holds 10 ml. The binder is a lacquer and it is thinned with Mr. Color Thinner or its Leveling version in a ratio of roughly 1:1 to 2:1 depending on the thickness; water will not serve. It is intended above all for an airbrush, and once dry it forms a solid film that takes sanding and further coats well.

If you adjust your gray mixes to suit yourself, note down the ratio of the components. Gray tones differ from each other subtly and hitting the same shade a second time from memory practically never works, and topping up a batch for a part-built model is then a problem. It pays to mix a larger quantity for stock straight away.