Fighting Fresnel Fall-off, Gelling an M18 for Daylight

I recently tried a specific gelling technique to tame an M18 in a shot that needed to look like natural daylight coming through a window, but with a slightly warmer, late-afternoon feel. Our 'daylight' source was an M18 outside, pushed through a 4x4 Diffusion frame with 1/2 Grid. The challenge was maintaining some punch and directionality while warming it up without killing too much output or creating hot spots, especially with the Fresnel lens. I didn't want to just use Full CTO on the gel frame, as it would be too much warmth and still uneven.

What I tried was a 1/4 CTS (Straw) directly on the barn doors of the M18, then used a separate 4x4 frame of 1/2 CTB to balance the overall color coming in, effectively making the M18 slightly warmer than daylight, but not overtly orange. The 1/4 CTS on the fixture itself helped bake in that subtle warmth before diffusion and the second layer of correction. It actually worked really well. The light hitting the talent from our V-RAPTOR XL looked organic, warm without being theatrical, and the fall-off felt natural.

What didn't work as well was attempting to use a heavier CTO directly on the M18's barn doors initially. It created an orange center and a much cooler fall-off around the edges, even through the grid, highlighting the Fresnel's inherent color shift with heavy gelling. The two-stage, opposing color temp approach was much more successful in creating a smooth, consistently warmer output.

What are your go-to gelling strategies for large HMIs when you need a subtle, natural color shift without sacrificing evenness?