The Ship Model Forum

Planning on building the 1/700 Flyhawk G-39 1916 but the directions show it as black as does the old Warship Profile Torpedo Boat B110. I thought German Destroyers and Torpedoboats were in typical German light grey during the war? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

The flyhawk instructions call for it to have a dark grey hull and dark blue decks

So does this mean German WW I torpedoboats were dark grey and not typical German light grey?

From 29.04.1895 to 14.12.1898 torpedoboats were painted dark grey all over, then up to 04.12.1916 black all over. From then until the end of WW1 they were dark grey again.

From their introduction in the early 1880s to 1895 they were painted in the same livery as other ships, that is black hull and ochre superstructures, funnels etc.

These are the official dates according to the Marineverordnungsblatt etc., but in reality, there may have been some delay in them being repainted.

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Eberhard

Former chairman Arbeitskreis historischer Schiffbau e.V. (German Association for Shipbuilding History)

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A remark to the colours:

the larger ships were painted in two grey colours, both of them being light greys. The darker one is called dark grey, but was usually not dark at all. This grey was used on the hulls, wheres the superstructure and on some cases part of the hull were painted in the lighter grey. The separation of these two greys can be difficult to see, because there was no big contrast between them (at the end of the war, there are examples of the darker of the two greys being much darker).

In case of the torpedo boats (destroyers), they were originally painted black, but starting in 1915, they were painted in the darker of the two light greys (the "dark grey"). Officially, that was changed in 1916 (as wefalck has written), but many destroyers were painted earlier in grey - and some smaller torpedo boats (e.g. those with "A" numbers) were painted black also after 1916.

I think that G 39 and her sisterships never were painted black, but always in the darker of the two light greys.

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Thank you!

An add on to the colours: I think that the decks were painted black - most steel decks of German ships of that period were painted black.

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To further qualify this in terms of modelling: according to textbooks on shipbuilding of the time, a concoction of oilpaint, tar and sand was used. This was spinkled with sand before drying. So after a few weeks out in the sea, the colour would be that of aged tarmac.

I found German 'Panzergrau RAL 7021' (e.g. Vallejo Model Air 71.056) a suitable base-colour that than can be modified with pastels and washings.

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Eberhard

Former chairman Arbeitskreis historischer Schiffbau e.V. (German Association for Shipbuilding History)

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i am really interested in their stern rear devices in some classes-like v-48 or S-boats. How did they work in battle?

What do you mean by that? Could you post a picture of the part you are referring to?

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Eberhard

Former chairman Arbeitskreis historischer Schiffbau e.V. (German Association for Shipbuilding History)

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Thank you again for all of the information. A further question; would the aft funnel be painted red at Jutland like the capital ships? Also, when ships sortied did they always paint the funnel?

The funnel colour is a controversial topic. The colour was likely different for different operations, i.e. specifically ordered for a specific operation. It was apparently only applied at sea and painted over before the return. I added on my models a red rear funnel for Jutland - but without any convincing argument besides that I thought that it was used as an identification mark and therefore would have make sense to use it on all ships.

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This photograph is not very clear. However, some boats had rails for mine-laying, see e.g. V47:


Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/SMS_V_47.jpg

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Eberhard

Former chairman Arbeitskreis historischer Schiffbau e.V. (German Association for Shipbuilding History)

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