Paint colors?

[JMoltzer]

My IJN just arrived in the mail, and I have no idea what color I should be painting it?

Is there a particular color they favored? I like Valejo paints, so if there is a good naval grey to use, I'd like that paint number.

A large part of my fleet is made up of aircraft carriers, I have noticed that they tend to have very decorative flight decks, lots of lines and some have a IJN flag painted on them, anyone know of a good source for color pictures or drawing of those decks?

 

[Bostich]

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/japan/ijn.htm

http://www.shipcamouflage.com/images/Ijn2_sheet.jpg

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

For basic ships and colourings I'd use a grey with a blue tinge to it, like Blue Grey Pale, and Deck Tan for the Deck.

 

[Leadman]

For most of the war, IJN warships were painted one of four different shades of grey depending on which naval dockyard they were commissioned from or refitted at. The shades varied quite a bit from each other. Testors Model Masters II series made these colors but I think that they are now out of production. The decks of ships from light cruiser up (excluding carrier decks) were covered in a dark red brown linoleum. I tend to use a lighter tan color as it looks bettter on the 1/2400 scale ships.

Dannie

 

[Bostich]

Yes, to be fair I think as long as all your ships look uniform it doesn't matter so much.

I also use a darker sea colour for RN / KM to represent the North Atlantic. for IJN/US I'd use a lighter sea blue.

I should add it also depends what scale you are painting as size effects perceived colour somewhat.

 

[Rastamann]

Sorry for highjacking the thread, but I am also starting to file my IJN ships and prepping them to get painted. Unfortunately, I come from a background in Sci-Fi and Fantasy gaming, and my vallejo colors are all from their Game line - can anyone tell me what colors from this line would be adequate for the Japanese grey shades?

My ships are 1:3000 scale, if that's a factor

Thanks