Tamiya dark sea grey, but is it?

[chrisonord]

  
I have gone with Mr Hobby dark sea grey, and airbrushed it on, it could just be the light, in this house of vertual darkness, buy it looks like a sort of washed out, sun bleached, been near the sea too long sort of look, which will do.

[jcf]

Something to bear in mind about Tamiya paints is that many of them don't match "standard XYZ"
and they've often been released in concert with a particular kit - and not necessarily an aircraft kit.
Just because it's called "Dark Sea Gray" doesn't mean it's directly related to the British colour of
the same name. Indeed a number of their paints are related to various ship models they've released. 

BTW XF-77 IJN Gray (Sasebo Arsenal) is a very close match to BS 638 Dark Sea Gray.
For those who may care about such things, if you don't then feel free to scroll on by.

[jcf]

Jeez Jon, you'll be talking about scale effect next...


Just use what looks right to you.
If you want reference material take a photo and adjust the levels until it matches your paint.
Simples.
 

No, I won't because applying a principle of two-dimensional painting/illustration used to simulate
distance to small three-dimensional objects observed at short range is a ludicrous concept. Ditto
some of the weathering effects that border on trompe l'oeil. They can look impressive and "realistic"
in photos taken under specific lighting and from specific angles, but when you see them in the flesh
they're often meh, because some of those vaunted effects either disappear once out in the wild or
just look absurd.

The blue toning that was (is?) in vogue on armour models is a classic example of one effect that is
truly stupid, it can work for simulating the lighting seen in a particular photograph of the real world
vehicle. However when you see it sitting on the table at a show or contest you'll just wonder why
that Crusader/Sherman/PzKpfw IV is pale blue.
 

As to the other, like everything in modelling it comes down to personal preference and no approach
is more valid than any other.