Sutho wrote:
I note the creative models store in Australia now has them in stock, I have purchased a few tins along with the bronze grey to check them out.
I still have my thoughts that if the old WEM colours were matched from actual samples on RN ships then they must have been used for something and have been, mislabeled, mixed or other and can only hope that the answer comes in the future.
Hi Sutho, thank you for your custom.
As we've progressed the wider research project the question of what those samples may have been has come up a few times. Whatever happens, we still have the Snyder & Short cards and will not be disposing of them.
What is known of those samples? Only that we can't see them now for reasons that pretty much amount to them having been lost, and that they had been identified by Alan Raven prior to being sent to John Snyder & Randy Short. Any original documents that Alan Raven reportedly saved from military disposal exercises ideally would have been given to a proper archive to look after, but apparently those were lost in a house move too.
I fear we will never know what condition those samples were in, nor why Alan Raven thought they were what he thought they were. We don't even know if they were British paints - it is clear the Admiralty had samples of some American paints because those too are colour chipped in ADM212/124 at the National Archives in Kew.
What we do have though is some compelling evidence of what colours the Royal Navy were using officially. Where these do resemble Snyder & Short's colours, great. In some cases where they don't quite match is possibly within the realms of explanation. I personally feel the B5 issue in particular is beyond explanation, save to say that whatever that sample was certainly wasn't B5!