69.037 Grey Matt

A neutral gray as the machine's starting area

The gray shade 69.037 lies in the middle of the tonal scale and has neither a warm nor a cool shift. That is exactly why a whole science-fiction machine is so often built out of it: a neutral area lets the shape, the rivets and the panel divisions come out without drawing attention to itself. The same property is appreciated by anyone who needs to check whether a surface really is smooth after sanding, because faults show best on gray.

A universal intermediate step

The second use is purely practical. Gray serves as a link between two colors that reject one another, and as a damper of saturation where a brown would bring in unwanted warmth. It mixes comfortably, because it has no color character of its own and the resulting ratio can be judged in advance; with colored tones that is usually not possible without a test patch.

• A gray with neither a warm nor a cool shift, exactly in the middle of the scale
• The basic area of science-fiction hulls, on which shape and paneling come out
• It reveals surface irregularities that a colored finish would lose
• It damps saturation without bringing warmth into the shade
• It mixes easily, because it brings in no color character of its own

What to do with it next

A gray area asks outright for drawing. A thin darker line into the panel lines, a lighter touch on the top edges and a few irregular patches of a different shade turn a dull surface into something that looks assembled from many parts. At the end a matte or semi-matte varnish is enough to even out the gloss and protect the drawing from being rubbed off during further handling.