paint colors

[navarr]

Hello,

I and a friend picked up VaS at the origins Game Convention in June.

We are in the process of getting started and are painting ships right now. I had some color questions.

1. American and Japanese deck colors. I have seen color pics and painting with the decks been a natural wood color and others where the deck is also camo colored.

What color paint is appropriate for the deck colors and is there a paint produced by Vallejo (as an example) that I can easily match to these colors.

2. The same question for the paint and camo colors of the ships.

3. I already had a WW1 fleet (figurehead Brit and German fleet packs) for another system that I had yet to get painted and am anticipating the release of rules to cover this period (hopefully).

Can anyone help me with colors for brit and german WW1 fleets (decking and ships).

Thanks in advance for any help that annyone can give me with these questions.

NICK

 

[BuShips]

I do not think I'd worry too much about getting the color historically correct, as weather conditions and aging would alter the original tint anyway. Teak was usually used as a wood for decks on naval ships so any tan paint should do fine.

I'd probably thin the paint down quite a bit into a wash because of the scale issue after priming the model. Yes, if you look at some of the specific camo paint schemes the decks were painted over as part of the specifications. USN decks were painted "deck blue" in accordance with their chosen camo scheme.

Dates made a difference as well. In the late war period (Pacific theater area) due to kamikaze attacks, the US ships were painted an overall dark blue to hide as much as possible from aerial observation.

 

[juggler69uk]

Nick

A few links for you to peruse

http://www.shipcamouflage.com/

http://www.combinedfleet.com/kaigun.htm

http://geocities.com/jwarship/Jwarship

And if you can find a copy the book shown in the link below might prove useful

http://www.clashofarms.com/cas-paint.html

Terry

 

[BuShips]

Those were all very good suggestions. Another is http://www.floatingdrydock.com/.

Here are some shots of my old WW2 1/1200 scale collection by Superior.

These are displaying various periods of camo used during the Pacific war, from 2-color measure 22 and some dazzle measures (31-33) and also ms. 21 which was Navy Blue overall, with decks painted deck blue.

 

[navarr]

Thanks for the help on the painting issues!!

The links were great.

The photos were definately helpful.

 

[juggler69uk]

If you want pics of painted ships, this site has tons in all periods

http://rasputin.physics.uiuc.edu/~wiringa/Ships/Period.html

 

[Alexb83]

Nice work on those, Bu - mine are 1/3000 and look nothing like as good.

The camouflage measures for the USN for various years are at...

http://www.steelnavy.com/usnchips.htm

I generally used the Thayer system for those where I'd found photographic evidence (Such as the Alaska/Guam, Independence, Ranger). The rest were in light grey with either wooden or blue-grey decks (measure 3).
Did some graded (measure 2).

 

[BuShips]

Thanks Alexb83 but as you know it's sometimes easier to paint the larger scale ships .

The Floating Drydock is where I sourced most of my reference materials, as they have the original USN camouflage plans available for purchase. I ran across piles of them as I was moving recently and I hadn't touched them for many many years. My memory is not as efficient as it used to be but I can still recognise specific paint work down to the ship name. In the photos above you will find the USS Hornet of Tokyo-raid fame and in the same measure is the cruiser USS Wichita.

Just to show Nick above (this is his topic after all) that some of the patterns on the USN ships were also applied to the decks as well, the following photo shows this in three of the four cruisers displayed.

I think that the design of the "large cruisers" of the Alaska class are probably my favorite ships of the period and the dazzle camo also gives them an excellent kit of '"makeup".

 

[navarr]

Thanks again for the photos

I am headed to GENCON this week and am going to pick up some paints. I think the Last Square will be there and they usually have a good selection of military paints on hand. I am one of these people that actually have to see the paint/product when I buy it unless I have already purchased it and know what it looks like.

I also saw on the GENCON schedule that there are 8 VaS games scheduled at GENCON that I am going to try and get into if they have not filled up.

 

[Burger]

Very nice models, and a great table too!

 

[BuShips]

Very nice models, and a great table too!

Thanks Burger. The "sea" is a roll up decorative liner (not unlike shelf liner). I picked it up on discount at a local craft store. It was for adding lakes and such to these little village collections that are around on holidays.