The Ship Model Forum

for canberre you can find a beautiful profile at
http://www.world-war.co.uk/index.php3
in canberra page.
for australia it is a foto in camouflage late 1941 in the book county class cruiser, man'o,war 1 of roberts & raven
ciao peppe

Thank you for posting that picture of HMAS Australia. I will use that as a guide as it clearly shows her pattern. The scheme appears to be the two-tone Alexandria scheme of 507A over a basecoat of 507C with dark gray decks. Paintings show her wearing this scheme in operations against the Vichy French at Dakar and then again at Coral Sea she is in a painting showing the same scheme. The painting of her off Dakar appears to show some B5 towards the bow, a common addition to admiralty disruptive designs.

HMAS Canberra was well represented at that website you sent me to - thank you! I imagine Chicago Blue must be USN Measure 21, so I will paint her up along those lines.

Thanks,
Chris

Steve P.:

Be very careful about using the Profile Morskie as a source, as this series is error prone.

Your best best (though not without problems of its own) is to get a copy of John Roberts' "British Warshps of World War II" which has a reproduction of the original Chatham Dockyard plans for HMS Kent after her 1938 refit (which was very close to, or identical to her early wartime fit--I'm not sure as I don't have the proper references at hand). In fact, through a stroke of sheer luck, you can view the plans online as they appear in the book in their entirety at:

http://books.google.com/books?id=B4jt82 ... t#PPA68,M1

The main problem with using these plans is that they are extremely "busy," and are reproduced in rather small scale, so it might be difficult to interpret them. But you can't do better than use these--they are original fly sheets from the dockyard. And I would recommend that you only use the Profile Morskie to fill in details that cannot be ascertained from the original plans.

Good luck, and I suspect I speak for many in saying that I look forward to seeing the work in progress.

Yours truly,

Mike E.

All:

All this talk about HMAS Australia and Canberra leads me to ask this question: has anyone found any new photos of HMAS Canberra wearing her early war ligth gray/dark gray scheme? It would be great if we could make progress toward filling in the rather large gaps in our knowledge about this scheme and what it looked like--though it apparently was similar to that worn by Australia early in the war. Inquiring minds are standing by.

Regards,

Mike E.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the response. I've made a note of the book and am chasing up a copy. I'm also after the Man O War publication.

At the moment I'm concentrating on research, checking to see where the PM publication differs from reality. It doesn't seem to be a bad publication, but the more I look at it, the more questions enter my head.

Best wishes
Steve P

Ciao all,

is there any way to have a photo or a scheme of the HMS Cumberland camouflage/mimetic scheme on autumn and year end 1939 ?

Many thanks for any help you may provide.

Ciao Antonio

Good evening all,

I wonder whether anybody could confirm the identity of the County class cruiser in the attached photograph, which I believe was one of a series of images of various RN warships taken in the Indian Ocean area in the 1941-42 timeframe? The lay out of the bridge structure and gunnery control systems coupled with lack of short range armament suggest HMS Dorsetshire to me but I have never seen a picture in this scheme so am doubtful. Perhaps one of the Board's experts might be able to help please?

Many thanks


Conrad Waters

Conrad:

There are others more knowledgeable than I on this forum, but I believe you are correct in narrowing the choice to Dorsetshire and Norfolk, due to the overall arrangement of the bridge and the configuration of the HA gun platforms, (among other things). Of these two, I would say that this is Dorsetshire, as Norfolk had UP projectors and then 20mm guns on her B and X turrets from early on in the war, whereas I don't believe that Dorsetshire ever had AA armament on her turrets (please forgive me if I'm wrong, I'm working from memory, as I don't have my references at hand).

That said, this is a spectacular photo, and a new one to me. Where did you get it from?

Please advise.

Mike E.

I concur with Mike E., beautiful shot. Maybe Alan Raven will chime in and give his take on the picture.




Bob Pink.

Interesting photo of Dorsetshire which looks as though it was taken at Trincomalee, probably in March.
Question; what is the source of the photo?

Thanks for your responses gentlemen.

In answer to your questions, the picture was one of a group recently purchased on E-Bay that are certainly old but might not be contemporary. They have no notations and the original source is unknown. They appear to have been taken in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean between 1942 and 1943, possibly from an aircraft carrier (Formidable? Indomitable?). Indian Ocean photos include a camouflaged HMS Hermes in Trimcomalee, views of Erebus and Emerald (the latter with what appears to be a pom pom mounting in replacement of the Y six inch mount) in what might be Mombasa and an R class battleship in a similar but not quite identical pattern to that representing Royal Sovereign on p40 of Mr Raven's second volume on RN camouflage. Sorry not to be able to give more precision.

Hello, I have just bought an HP 1/700 heavy cruiser HMS London and I wish to know if anyone knows the types of colour schemes she may have worn post war (1946-1949).

Thanks, John

I also have a paint question about RN postwar cruisers, specifically Belfast. What scheme did she wear while serving off Korea in the 1950s? I want to say it was a light gray for the vertical surfaces and a standard deck gray for the horizontal. Anyone know for sure? John @ WEM I'm leaning in your direction

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Hi guys, I am thinking of scratch building an HMS Norfolk. What would be the best timeframe to model her, do you think? Maybe a Dec 43 version to go with that new Scharnhorst that's coming out? Or maybe a 41 to fight the Bismarck I am thinking of building later. Also I need a good set of drawings, where should I look?

London was in refit until the middle of 1947, after being brought forward from the reserve fleet. All the photos I've seen show her in the standard post-war RN paint scheme of plain light grey with white highlights around the bridge area. Iain Ballantyne's excellent book 'HMS London' has several good photos showing London in this scheme. She was apparantly a very 'tiddly' ship.

Steve

Up until the Coronation Review, the RN postwar standard was AP 507C on all vertical surfaces, AP 507A on all steel decks, and holystoned teak decks.

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John Snyder
Shady Grove Farm
Shady Grove Farm on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShadyGroveDuckEggs

Thanks for the information. I'm still working on my HMS London model and I have not painted it yet.

John

I also need a good set of plans if anyone can point me in that direction. Thanks.

Since you mentioned building the Norfolk in conjunction with the new Scharnhorst kit I assume you are thinking 1/350 scale. If so, are you aware that Iron Shipwrights makes a Norfolk 1/350 resin kit in, I believe, 1941 fit? At $200+ the cost of the kit would not be much more than the cost of the only viable plan option of which I am aware, which is a set of as-fitteds from the NMM. I've been working on a 1/192 scratch model of Dorsetshire and have the as-fitteds for her. Prior to the war the two ships were almost identical, but in 1941, and certainly by 1943, Norfolk had some significant differences.

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Steve Sobieralski
Tampa Bay Ship Model Society

Has anybody idea what were the deck colours for HMS Berwick in 1945? Would the main deck be natural wood and the rest dark grey?
TIA
Regards ,Phil

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