Home Forums Air and Sea Naval Help painting WW1 RN 1/3000 ships

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  • #84897
    Avatar photoSharpe_95
    Participant

    Hi everyone,

    New to the forum so ‘hello’. I was wondering if someone might be able to help me?

    I am looking to paint up some Royal Naval ships (BB’s, BC’s, CA’s, CL’s and DD’s) from the World War 1 era (1/3000 scale). I am looking for some help defining the correct colors for ships in this period – being color blind, I find it hard to match them up at the best of times, but this period seems particularly difficult.

    I normally work with Vallejo, Citadel or Warpaint (or a combination). Can anyone suggest what color schemes were common for the periods below and ideally any good matches with the aforementioned paint brands?

    The periods I am looking to represent are:

    1900-1906 (pre-dreadnought).

    1906-1913 (post-dreadnought ships, pre war)

    1914-16 (early-mid war). I understand this will almost universally be ‘Battleship Grey’?

    1916-18 (late war). I understand a ‘lighter’ grey was used – but can anyone recommend one?

    Post war. I have a couple of ships (like Hood, N3 and G3) that were either never built or were built after the war. These will be used in hypothetical, but can anyone suggest a good color scheme for post war – or would it make more sense to continue with late war paint scheme on the basis the ‘war never ended’ or similar?

    Very many thanks,

    -Sharpe

    #84898
    Avatar photoMike
    Keymaster

    Thanks for joining, good user name too!

    #84917
    Avatar photoMcKinstry
    Participant

    Mal Wright a very knowledgeable naval gamer and artist wrote this article on WW1 colors a while back.

    http://www.gwpda.org/naval/s1200000.htm

    Pre-dreadnoughts for the RN are usually depicted (if not in a wartime grey) in their Victorian colors of black hull, white upper works and a fairly bright yellow ochre for the funnels and masts. Google has tons of images to help get that yellow right.

    I might caution that the smaller the scale, the darker a particular paint may look. For the 1/4800 and 1/6000 20th century ships I prefer, I always go a shade or two lighter in the grays as dark gray on a smaller ship looks almost black on the table and can hide detail. For what it is worth, I also use a white primer to help keep things a bit lighter.

    You also may look up a member here, Yarkshire Gamer, who did a whole Jutland thing in 1/2400 and is quite skilled at WW1 painting.

     

    The tree of Life is self pruning.

    #85714
    Avatar photoVolunteer
    Participant

    You forgot to mention Mal has authored a few books on the subject as well.🤓

    "Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing"
    Wernher von Braun

    #86265
    Avatar photoEtranger
    Participant

    Mal (who’s a mate of mine) tends to mix his own colour combinations, based on a lot of original research. McKinistry’s summary is a good one & I ‘d agree on the idea of lightening colours by a shade, using light gray rather than white as it doesn’t change the pigment colours.

    #86274
    Avatar photoMcKinstry
    Participant

    I’m familiar with Mal’s WW2 treatments of British/Commonwealth camouflage but if he’s got a WW1 book out there, where can I get it?

    The tree of Life is self pruning.

    #86279
    Avatar photoEtranger
    Participant

    Only WWII versions published AFAIK, but I’m sure he’d like to do  a WWI book if someone pays him!

    #88548
    Avatar photogrizzlymc
    Participant

    His WWII Brit battleships book includes dazzle paint for R class BBs in WWI

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