US ship colors

[Rocky1776]

I am a newbie to ship modeling, and I am refinishing an Aurora USS Enterprise kit that I built when I was a kid. What shade of grey are US ships? Its an early version, so the colors ought to be correct for 1962. From old photos that I have seen, the island appears to be a lighter shade of grey than the hull, and the deck seems to be an unusually light shade for a deck, perhaps the same as the hull sides.

[sierra hotel]

for an undetermined period the E island definitely had a two toned island, the bottom half was haze gray and upper beehive cone was haze gray while the billboard arrays were a much lighter shade, reflecting heat and light much better off these newly invented billboard radars.

I have a full book coming out on the Enterprise The Early Years 1961- 1979, which will include a photo DVD of choice pictures from the book, as its her 50th birthday...
That model project should be challenging considering the age of the Aurora kit, a plethora of problems to overcome and upgrade, I wish you luck.

[Russ2146]

These are from http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/65.htm

CVN-65 Island 1966.jpg

CVN-65 Port Bow Oblique 1964.jpg

CVN-65Port Qtr Oblique 1962.jpg

'66.jpg

'63.jpg

[Rocky1775]

Is Haze grey darker or lighter than a neutral grey? Is there an FS number for that?
I'm thinking the billboards might be flat gull grey, as they seem to be about the same shade as the aircraft on the deck. How about the deck color. Does anyone know what kind of grey that should be?

[Russ2146]

http://www.cybermodeler.com/color/usn_matrix.shtml

http://www.cybermodeler.com/color/fs595c_matrix7.shtml

[Rocky1775]

http://www.cybermodeler.com/color/usn_matrix.shtml

http://www.cybermodeler.com/color/fs595c_matrix7.shtml

Unh, thats nice, but which one of those FS numbers is haze grey?

[Russ2146]

And yet another modeler encounters the Paint Name/Color multiplied by the number of paint manufacturers enigma!!!!

BUT ! http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship ... TPAINT.HTM

"E. PCM TILES & ADJACENT AREAS OF SUPERSTRUCTURE - PER REF J, PCM

TILES SHALL BE PAINTED WITH MIL-E-24763, HAZE GRAY, COLOR 26270,

WATER BASED ACRYLIC LATEX PAINT. REF A REQUIRES VERTICAL TOPSIDE

AREAS OF SUPERSTRUCTURE TO BE PRESERVED WITH TOPCOAT SILICONE ALKYD

ENAMEL, HAZE GRAY, FED-STD-595, COLOR 26270. FOR TOPSIDE COLOR

CONTINUITY, NAVSEA AUTHORIZED USE OF HAZE GRAY LATEX ACRYLIC,

MIL-E-24763, FOR ADJACENT AREAS OF SUPERSTRUCTURE VICE SILICONE ALKYD

ENAMEL SPECIFIED REF A. REF K AND L PERTAIN.

F. SHIP & BOAT CANOPIES - SHIP CANOPIES STOWED IN A VERTICAL OR NEAR

VERTICAL POSITION SHALL BE PAINTED HAZE GRAY VINYL OVER CANVAS

PRESERVATIVE TT-P-595. REPLACEMENT CANOPIES SHOULD BE SPECIFIED IN

HAZE GRAY, FED-STD-595, COLOR 26270. BOAT CANOPIES SHALL BE PAINTED

ON THE OUTSIDE WITH HAZE GRAY CANVAS PRESERVATIVE FED SPEC TT-P-595.

UNDERSIDES SHOULD NOT BE PAINTED."

And, MIL-DTL-24441/30B(SH) 27 August 2009 states
"Use FED-STD-595 color chip number 26270. Color shall approximately match the color chip."
(http://www.nstcenter.com/docs/milspecs/ ... 1%2030.pdf)
So, modern "haze gray" is FS 26270, which is Modelmaster Neutral Gray with a semi-gloss finish, rather than matt.

[Rocky1775]

Ahhh, thank you. That is what I needed to know. Now if someone can come up with the FS number for the early light grey on the island, I'll really be cookin'!

[Rocky1775]

These are from http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/65.htm

'63.jpg

I just painted the deck Tan FS30219, which looks brown out of the bottle. This is the same FS color as the tan on camoflaged USAF aircraft during the Vietnam War. Photos of such USAF aircraft and the early Enterprise deck seem similar, but my paint is much darker and browner. I'm not sure if that is because the paint faded on the aircraft, or if the photos are printed light. Photos lie.