Midland Railway Grey

[animotion]

Who uses Midland Railway Freight Grey that you can purchase from Phoenix Paints or have modellers used ordinary grey primer for the job?  I do know the Midland Railway used two variations of grey for their wagons and one was a lot darker than the other. One of the greys was paint that was purchased from the Royal Navy at the time and this could have been the darker colour. The other question is what finish the paint would have been which would apply to most companies when painting their wagons. I would imagine that a gloss finish would have given the wagons more protection but in 4mm would not look right. I have tested Halfords grey primer against Simoniz grey plastic primer and both give different shades of grey with the Halfords one being more matt. I do have a good airbrush but avoid using it if an aerosol can do the job just as well. Any thoughts on this would be welcomed.

[Nile]

Use their LMS wagon grey, it's the right colour for Midland wagons. This paint darkened with age, so you can add some black to it to age it a bit.

[57xx]

The Royal Navy paint was what they called Smudge and was only used for repairs, not full repaints. As Nile said, the variations in shade came from the darkening of the lead use in the grey paint.

 

The Phoenix LMS wagon grey is pretty close to the Halfords grey primer, but I prefer using the paint so I can vary the shading easily. You may be able to achieve a similar effect with weathering/washes.