Well, folks,
it happened after all: I invested in some limited reference books. I received Taylor´s book on HMS Hood (still have to read that one) and also bought Rossiter´s book on Ark Royal. He´s the guy who organized the underwater exploration and naturally the book´s not strong on paint schemes or technical tidbits, but he gives a nice account of the Ark´s service life with quotes of crew members.
The book gave me the opportunity to watch some of the pics I already knew in better quality, and as I´m VERY short in beginning my build, I of course kept attention to them. As I´ll build my ship full hull (enables me to present her in heavy or calm seas), I´m interested in the hackneyed issue of the rpesence of a boot topping. I´d be nearly 100% sure there wasn´t any upon launching her, but the pics prior to her loss seem to show it to me.
Yet it looks strangely lighter than the underwater hull, which can´t be. Or it´s a matter of b/w film representing colours in a very special way, or it´s some marine growth in the area just below the waterline.
Bottom line is I guess I won´t go wrong with a boot topping.
The other thing that was discussed here is a possible two-tone grey scheme for her hull. As I interpret the pics, the darker hue seen below the kink in the hull is simply a trick of the light, meaning that lower hull area must have been in the shade and hence looks darker on the pics. The bow area (in front of the kink) looks uniform grey all the way.
Right now I think I´ll go with a grey flight deck with faded white markings plus some traces of rubber tyres and a bit of grunge. I´ve no idea where the wild shades on the pic from South America originate from - maybe they were just repainting the flight deck and wre only half through?
What I don´t know is which decks to apply corticene to - well, you live to learn says
Frank
PS: Here´s my last model - a trip to the funny side