This is probably the hardest decision in any build. It may create an unfathomable amount of indecisiveness, unless you have a specific colour in mind. There is a good chance that you may change your mind multiple times. Even then, there are shades, different paint suppliers, techniques, age etc. that will make for small differences.
There is a lot of science that goes into colour too, which I’m not even going to pretend to understand. Suffice to say it is impossible to pick a colour off of a photo or match a colour with a code only. Ultimately you have to make a decision and stick to your guns. It will no doubt divide opinion, irrespective of which one you choose. So it may be argued it is also the most fun decision!
I knew I wanted an ‘old school’ colour. Something that would look both period and completely out of place on a modern family car. Definitely no white, black, yellow red etc. Definitely a pastel. It would also need to be a solid colour. The metallic paints of the 50s were very different to the modern ones. If I couldn’t replicate that awesome fish silver grey of the 356 then I’d rather avoid it altogether. Silver is in any case timeless but possibly the most used colour on a speedster. Beside, I have a silver Volvo, so no!
The next question is whether you try to do a factory colour or your own one. Seeing that I already decided this car wasn’t replicating anything, I decided not to worry too much about the Porsche catalogue. That said, three early contenders where all Porsche colours. There was Stone grey (really a greenish tinged light cream grey… I guess.) Then there was Aquamarine non-metallic, which is a rich deep blue and quite specific to the 356. Lastly I liked Aetna blue, which is a really cool greyish blue which has reappeared on the 991. The colour would have to meet my overall car criteria of fitting in at Le Mans in the 1950s. I also briefly flirted with the idea of a green car. Mint? Auratium? Or what about an orange? I was leaning heavily towards blue not because it was sportier than grey, but for a completely ridiculous reason. It would offset the other primary colours in my garage nicely!
I tried to broaden my horizons and fixated for a while on VW Dove blue. I loved the industrial and Volkswagen connection to it. But it also made me realise what a minefield colour selection, especially the blues, can be. If you find two Dove blue VW panel vans that are exactly the same shade, let me know! I have always loved military aviation, so I then considered RAF photo reconnaissance Unit blue as used on the stripped out high altitude version Spitfire. Then I looked at Mercedes Blau Grau as used on the 50s SL.
To avoid further risk of my head exploding, I eventually just picked a colour with my painter. It would be a Aetna/PRU/BlauGrau mish mash. Who really knows what exact shade a low visibility scheme was in 1944 anyway. It would look completely different depending on the light conditions, with it changing from pretty much anything between grey and turquoise. And it wouldn’t matter because it is retro and weird and epic and because I’m sticking to my guns. I’ll call it Resin Racer blue. I can’t show it to you either, because shades of blue are impossible to photograph!