The Ship Model Forum

No problem 81542, happy ship modelling and cheers for taking the time to reply.

Sorry, Mr Church: I am unable to help further on this one.

81542

Thanks for that 81542.

I don't know about the decks in 1952 as I'm not aware of any colour footage from that time. There is this GettyImages photo listed as 1946 which would seem to suggest grey:
[attachment=0]HMS Vanguard 1946.jpg[/attachment]

Certainly 'A' and 'B' Turret roofs appear grey. And the anchor rubbing strips appear brown. These seem unchanged in the 1960 film footage of her being towed away for scrapping.

Photographs of her in reserve show the roofs of the turrets as all being light grey coloured, seemingly same as the hull and superstructure. Interesting point regarding them simply transitioning from dark grey roofs to light grey. But I'd be surprised if it took years to do that? Seems odd to repaint only one and not the others.

Mr Church,

I cannot provide you with an answer to this, merely some suggestions concerning the points that you raised. However it may sting someone else that can into contributing.

First, are we sure that the steel decks were actually dark grey and not a brown; which would have simulated Corticene? It is known that some destroyers favoured such a colour or something similar into the mid 1960's. I recall seeing somewhere else, a picture showing HMS VANGUARD's cable deck with the side being "manned" and a despatch vessel passing forward with HM the Queen onboard it (Coronation Review?). The deck appeared to have a gloss paint on it and there was no hint of it being grey. On the other hand, is it possible that the colour was a "royal" blue in view of the fact that the ship had been employed/was to have been employed again, as a royal yacht? As an aside, however, you may recall seeing some of the brown paint still on the cable deck in the film of the ship being towed to the breakers.

Concerning the apparently odd shade of grey of Y turret's roof. I venture to suggest that this is probably due to the previous darker coloured paint "grinning" through the lighter colour. It would have continued to do so until further coats of paint were applied.

Was the change of colour to Y intended as a recognition feature? I doubt it: it may have simply been the start of a change of a fashion to change the colour of the paint on all of the turret roofs.

Interesting point though.

81542

I posted this in the Calling All Ship Fans thread, but have subsequently found some photos on Wikipedia that better illustrate the point. The question is what colour was Vanguard's 'Y' Turret roof in 1952? And in and around then?

Upon Vanguard's completion in 1946 the roofs of the four main battery turrets were all painted a dark colour, presumably dark grey same as the steel decks. All four turret roofs remained in a dark colour during the Royal Tour to South Africa in 1947. At some point subsequent to this the roof of 'Y' Turret seems to have been painted in lighter colour (possibly the same light grey as the vertical elements of the hull and superstructure) with the other three turrets remaining in dark colour.

'Y' Turret roof looks to be either the same as the vertical elements of the hull and superstructure or perhaps very slightly darker? I have not ascertained exactly when it was changed but it was certainly light grey by January 1951 as seen in the photo on Page 95 of RA Burt's recent book on Vanguard. It was still in the lighter colour as of the Coronation Review in 1953. Was there any particular reason for this? Vanguard was a one-off so it would seem unlikely to be a Royal Navy aerial recognition feature? Of course it is not impossible that it was a NATO recognition feature of some kind to help distinguish her from the Iowa Class Battleships that would also have been active at the time?

Anyway these photos from Wikipedia from 1952 at the time of NATO Exercise Mainbrace illustrate the point clearly. Photos from Wikipedia, copyright rests with original owner:

[b]Overall view:[/b]
[attachment=2]640px-thumbnail.jpg[/attachment]

[b]Overall view:[/b]
[attachment=1]640px-HMS_Vanguard_(23)_and_USS_Midway_(CVA-41)_at_anchor_in_the_Firth_of_Clyde,_Scotland_(UK),_during_NATO_Operation_Mainbrace,_in_September_1952_(80-G-K-13032).jpg[/attachment]

[b]Closeup view of 'X' and 'Y' Turrets:[/b]
[attachment=0]HMS_Vanguard_(23)_and_USS_Midway_(CVA-41)_at_anchor_in_the_Firth_of_Clyde,_Scotland_(UK),_during_NATO_Operation_Mainbrace,_in_September_1952_(80-G-K-13032) - X and Y turret.jpg[/attachment]

So again, to sum up, the question is what colour was Vanguard's 'Y' Turret roof as seen above?

I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on it?

Or better again does anyone know for definite what colour it was or why it was painted differently to the other turrets? Thanks.