People tend to become far too carried away with the exact colour that should be used. Even today with computers looking after the tinting no two tins of paint come out the same shade. Even if you can find a sample that has not been exposed to sunlight age will still alter the colour.
A mate in the navy tells me that when at sea they occupy some of their time by repainting the ship. Seems it is not good for the public to see the ship looking rusty as they might think it is not being looked after. This paint comes in large containers which are then tipped into even larger containers to be mixed together. If this is not done the ship could end up being almost white at one end and a dark grey at the other.
During the 39 - 45 period it was difficult to obtain paint pigment in Australia. This being due to it being all imported and not considered a high shipping priority. Dulux Australia had to resort to finding clays locally which could be mixed with the paint to produce the colours sought (This is from their own corporate history). Am sure this would have also resulted in further colour variation.
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