US neutral Gray

[tonyeh]

Hi. This is my first post on the "new look" forum.

I have a question.

How "blue" was US neutral gray? What I mean is that I have seen many colour photos of US aircraft in the standard olive drab/neutral gray colours, but the tone of neutral gray appears to be, sometimes, a bright lightish gray to a dark almost RAF azure blue colour.

Last night I saw a documentary on the B-17 and the neutral gray on an 8th AF plane seemed a very dark blue colour. The quality of the film was very good and clear and showed that the aircraft had some operational age to it too, as the OD had that typical faded look to it.

Now, I know that there are parameters involved, such as photo quality, fading and mixing qualities (although as I understand it, US paint mixing was quite a strict process). But the contrast in variations is sometimes VERY stark.

Can anyone help?

Tony