This is what happens when an inquiring mind encounters too much idle time; remember its only gray/grey paint.
The Questions:Have you ever wondered what colour RN ships where painted in WW1? What colour do you get when 11 ounces of black paint are added to 6 pounds of white paint? What was the colour of grey at Jutland?
Four Shades of Grey with A Good White and Ordinary BlackAttachment:
Figure 1 RN WW1 Grey.jpg
Figure 1 RN WW1 Grey
This scan has been colour corrected back to the paint chips. When printed, the output closely resembles the paint chips.
The Answers:Time Line Summary*
Victorian Colour schemes used prior to August 5, 1902
Dark Grey was used from August 5, 1902 until November 19, 1914 for the hulls and weather work of H. M. ships.
For the RN, WW1 starts August 4, 1914
Grey was used after November 19, 1914 for hulls and weather work of H. M. ships.
Battle of Jutland fought May 31, 1916
Light Grey was used after July 7, 1916 for the upper works of torpedo craft.
Very Light Grey was used after April 19, 1917 for the top masts of H. M. Ships.
* = Please see ‘Colour of HM Ships: Chronological Notes’ below for more detail.
The Colours
_______________Black:White Mix__Colourcoats _____Model Master
Dark Grey_______3:2____________GW04 #4 Grey___2034 Engine Gray
Grey___________3:4_____________GW03 #3 Grey___nm
Light Grey_______2:3____________nm_____________nm
Very Light Grey__1:13____________nm____________1734 Light Ghost Gray
nm = No Match, there may be suitable WEM Colourcoats or Testors Model Master paints but I did not have access to them at this time.
What We Know:From the PRO (now National Archives) (via M. Brown):
On 5th August 1902, an amending minute was issued stating "that ships which are to be newly commissioned this Autumn are to be painted grey, the selected colour being obtained by a mixture of 6lbs white and 11ozs black. It is to be understood that this is to be the final shade, and care is to be taken that the ground does not shew through to modify the colour".
From "British Warships 1914-1919" by FJ Dittmar & JJ Colledge Ian Allan Ltd 1972, Page 13.
Attachment:
Figure 2 Colour of HM Ships Chronological Notes.jpg
Figure 2 Colour of HM Ships: Chronological Notes
From “The Ship Painter's Handbook”, Fifth Edition 1936 by George S. Welch
A Good White
___White Lead________28__lbs
___White Zinc (oxide)__56__lbs
___Patent Dryers_______7__lbs
___Raw Linseed Oil_____14__pints
___Turpentine__________6__pints
Ordinary Black
___Ordinary Stiff Black__76__lbs
___Raw Linseed Oil______6__pints
___Boiled Linseed Oil____10__pints
___Terebine Dryers______4__pints
___Marine Dryers_______12__lbs
Dryers contain metal ions, cobalt is typical, that cause a reaction in the linseed oil causing it to cross link or dry. White lead is also capable of acting as a Dryer.
Method:Looking at the formulations of paint in “The Ship Painter's Handbook” what is ‘Ordinary Stiff Black’, White Lead and the various dryers? So it was off to the Net and Art sites to get these answers.
A Good White______________Used to Make Paint
__Patent Dryers____________Japan Drier
__White Lead______________White Lead
__White Zinc (oxide)________Zinc Oxide
__Raw Linseed Oil___________Pure Linseed Oil
__Turpentine_______________Pure Turpentine
Ordinary Black
__Marine Dryers____________Japan Drier
__Ordinary Stiff Black_______Carbon Black
__Raw Linseed Oil__________Pure Linseed Oil
White Lead is Lead Carbonate or Flake White, Ordinary Black is Carbon Black and both of these came as the dry pigment from artist supply stores. Japan Drier was the only dryer used at the recommended rate of 4 ounces per gallon. (0.04 grams in 10 grams of paint)
Attachment:
Figure 3 Paint Making Materials.jpg
Figure 3 Paint Making Materials
From the Ship Painter’s Handbook a white and black paint was made up. For the Black Paint I used only pure linseed oil but added the boiled linseed oil quantity.
Excel was used to convert the quantities into grams. I made 40 grams of white paint and 10 grams of black paint using a Mettler Toledo PB3002 precision balance.
Attachment:
Figure 4 Mettler Toledo Precision Balance.jpg
Figure 4 Mettler Toledo Precision Balance
Specifications
___Maximum capacity:__600 g / 3100 g
___Readability:________0.01 g / 0.1 g
___Repeatability:______0.01 g/0.05 g
___Linearity:________± 0.02 g/0.1 g
The 40 grams of white paint were made up in a beaker and a metal spatula was used to emulsify the white pigments into the linseed oil. Turpentine was then added to give the correct flowing characteristics as per the Ship Painters Handbook. The Black paint is a suspension of the carbon black in the linseed oil and mixed easily.
Excel was then used to calculate the blend weights of the white and black paints as per below:
Attachment:
Figure 5 Grey Mix Table.JPG
Figure 5 Grey Mix Table
AFO Date is the Admiralty Fleet Oder date. In small bottles on the Mettler Toledo Precision Balance 10 grams of each colour where made. Yes, the second decimal place is usable; the cardboard in the photos provides a wind break from stray air currents in the lab allowing for measurement stability giving accurate weights. Typically I would add weight just until the correct weight was on the display. If I went over a bit, then I would remove the excess by dipping in the spatula until I was slightly under the correct weight. I would then make up to the correct weight prior to mixing. This was done in small glass jars with a couple fishing split shot weights to ensure good mixing. The grey was both shaken and stirred to ensure uniformity of colour.
The colours where then painted onto a previously prepared colour card and the paint allowed to dry. The colour card was then scanned and corrected in Adobe Photoshop; (colours tended to be way to blue in the original scan), as shown in Figure 1.
Matching:The Figure 1 RN WW1 Grey colours where both visually and digitally compared to White Ensign Models (WEM) Colourcoats for AP507 and for the series of grey’s GW01 thru GW05. The colours were also compared with paint chips made from Testors Model Master grays. In addition from Model Master Flat White 2142 and Flat Black 1749 I made a series of grey colour chips to match the RN WW1 Greys. All colour chips were scanned and colour corrected using the identical correction values as used for RN WW1 Greys. MS Power Point was used to combine scan of Figure 1 with scans of colour chips. MS Paint was used to place the colour chip onto the scan of the RN WW1 Grey. The Windows Snipping Tool was used to create the comparisons shown below. For a match the boarder of the colour chip will blend into the background grey.
AP507 Series
Attachment:
Figure 6 AP507 Colours Comparison.JPG
Figure 6 AP507 Colours Comparison
As the AP507 series of greys contain Pattern 8 Egyptian Blue there was no colour match ether visually or by overlaying the colour chips in MS Paint. (Blue pigment reference from Commonwealth Navy Order 109/1934 per Admiralty Fleet Order 1658/27.) Because of the addition of blue these are simply incorrect to be used with WW1 RN ships.
WEM GW01 thru GW05 Series
Attachment:
Figure 7 WEM Colour Comparison.jpg
Figure 7 WEM Colour Comparison
Dark Grey was very closely matched by Grey #5 GW05 both visually and with over layered colour chips. So here is a solution for pre dreadnaught paint. There was a slight visible difference between Grey and Grey #4 GW04 both to the eye and as shown in the overlapped colour chips. The difference is small enough that GW04 should be considered for RN ships from the start of WWI to the Battle of Jutland. Greys GW03, GW02 and GW01 appeared to have warmer colours that the RN WW1 Greys and so are not suitable for use as shown in the colour chip overlays.
Model Master Gray Matches
Attachment:
Figure 8 Model Master Colour Comparison.jpg
Figure 8 Model Master Colour Comparison
I made colour chips of 18 Model Master grays, there were only 2 matches. Dark Grey matched very well with Engine Gray 2034 and Very Light Grey matched well with Light Ghost Grey 1734. The three middle examples were close but not really close enough to be suitable as you can clearly see the outline of the over lapped colour.
Mixtures of Model Master Flat White 2142 and Flat Black 1749
Attachment:
Figure 9 Mixture Colour Comparison.jpg
Figure 9 Mixture Colour Comparison
With White Lead being very dense it takes a lot of it to dilute the Carbon Black which is very light when creating paint by weight. When creating paint by volume completely different ratios result in the same grey colour as when mixed by weight. The volume ratios resulted in very close matches to the white lead based weight based greys. Visually the matches were closer than the colour corrected overlay scans above.
Final Thoughts:The more you know the clearer you can see the gaps in your knowledge. This record of grey paint colour is anything but complete. The Dark Grey that many of the early builders’ models are painted appears to be the correct colour the real ship was painted. These are not early examples of ‘marketing’ dramatizing for additional sales or impact. Figure 10 of HMS Monarch 1911 in the London Science Museum is a classic example. But did HMS Monarch have the red detail line at the base of all structures?
Attachment:
Figure 10 HMS Monarch 1911.jpg
Figure 10 HMS Monarch 1911
RN ships at Jutland should have been painted Grey, as it turned out, quite a dark shade. Destroyers were painted in all sorts of colour schemes and after Jutland had Light Grey upper works. Very Light Grey appears to have been used only for top masts.
But looking at ‘Colour of HM Ships: Chronological Notes’ there are a number of Admiralty Fleet Order colours that do not detail the paint blend; HMS Carysfort’s blue and destroyers patchy grey are examples. The Battle of Heligoland Bight, August 28, 1914, had dark panels painted on the sides for RN Battlecruisers. So the panel should have been Dark Grey but what of the other two lighter grey colours in the photos? Grey seams much to dark to match the grey in the photos from the time period. We seem to be missing the Admiralty Fleet Orders to cover this camouflage scheme. And speaking of missing orders, what were the colours where RN Ships after Jutland? Photos suggest a much lighter shade of grey then the standard Grey of 1914. And what of the Mediterranean colours, where they the same, this is very unlikely.
Call it one hundred years since these colours where in routine usage, we seem to have lost quite a bit of information about them. The National Archives (United Kingdom) may still hold the answers of how to make the other greys. It is interesting to note that the information from Dittmar & Colledge in Figure 2 appears not to have been rediscovered.
So it’s only grey, but how very interesting.
Cheers,
George