About colors:
Some other references here:
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=46997&start=40Cuirassé Bretagne 1/200:
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=366021Plans & Drawings:
General list :
http://www.shipmodell.com/index_files/0PLAN5A.html#2SBattleship Bretagne plans:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B32-8Z ... PDNXfRG9kgFrom the french book & plans " Les Cuirassés de 23 500 tonnes":
"5. Special paints and marks:
51. Paintings:
The hull up to the waterline is painted green (Schweinfurth green), the topsides and the superstructures are grey-bluish, a classic color since its adoption in February 1908. Only the strake at the top of the funnels is black.
From 1915, that is to say during the period of the tests, the steel of the 340 turrets and their guns was stripped bare and treated with a "greasy plug" to prevent corrosion. These "fat plugs" contained a mixture of grease and lampblack, which gives the main artillery turrets that shiny black hue seen in photos from this era.
Towards the end of the war (1918), the shaft of the rear mast. is painted black in its upper half to avoid soiling due to fumes. Pursuant to the Ministerial Circular of November 30, 1920, the tranche of waterline is painted black over a height of one meter (0.50 m from and the other side of the water line 10).
The launch boats are painted bluish gray with white interior. The vertical parts of the deckhouses of the launches are kept "clear" or varnished if they are wooden, otherwise they are painted the color of the boat. The roofs are painted gray for the steamers, white for the launches.
52. Specific marks:
Since 1912, the particular marks of battleships and cruisers consist of white rings painted around one of the funnels. These rings make it possible, within a squadron, to identify the division to which it belongs and the rank of a ship in this division. The code used has already been explained during the presentation of Courbet type battleships.
Between 1916, the year of their entry into service, and their first overhaul, the three Class "Bretagne" frequently changed particular marks, so the study of the latter is the subject of a table in the appendix, common to all battleships. of 23,500 tons."
From the book " French battleships of WW1 " :
Jean Bart in drydock 1916. You can see the 3 bands..
Extract from the book by Laurent Roblin and Luc Féron. "La Royale à la Belle Epoque".
In 1995, Laurent Roblin, chief curator of the Musée de la Batellerie in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, discovered a large metal box at the bottom of one of the museum's storage rooms. Inside, fourteen boxes of glass plates? This collection, which had been sleeping in a storeroom since 1967, turns out to be of inestimable value.
What are we looking at?
223 images of exceptional quality and totally unpublished, based on the theme of the Royale, the French Navy, from 1895 to 1914.
Translate:
"The boundary between the dead and the live works is materialized by a white band about 25 cm above the waterline.
As far as the color of the living works is concerned, the campaign specifications all specify, when the matter is mentioned, that during the passages in the basin, the hull was repainted with "Schwein-furth green". We also owe Jean Guiglini the formula for the composition of this painting, and we give it here for the benefit of model builders who would like to get a closer look at reality. (Extract from the magazine LA NATURE ler semestre 1930 p. 47).
- Mercury soap 15%
- Rosin 20%
- Turpentine 20%
- Lead soap 15%
- Linseed oil 20%
- Copper acetoarsenate 15%
This last material, toxic for marine organisms, and having a very bright aquamarine green color, gives this paint its tint and its anti-shellfish and algae characteristics (nowadays, it looks like an "antifouling" paint)
But the problem is not so simple! Indeed, the black and white photographs of the building taken during this period all show, under the white net of the waterline, a dark area that cannot be the result of a green tint. Furthermore, the paintings, watercolors and colored postcards generally show a red area under the white line in question. Finally, the estimates for the work done on various buildings at that time, and on the Bouvet in particular, mention, in addition to the Schweinfurth" green, the use of lead minium in large quantities.
The explanation seems clear to us and is, for example, visible in the photo of the Carnot at the basin. While the minium was used as a protective layer against rust, a layer of "Schweinfurth green" was applied afterwards to protect the hull as much as possible against organic dirt. When floating, the main problem is corrosion - it is the oxygen in the air that attacks the iron; this is probably the reason why an area of about one meter, painted with minium, was kept at the top of the living works, just under the white border.