Correct colours for the Admiral Graf Spee can anyone help?

[Dave Stone]

Can anyone point out the right paint tones for the Hull above and below the water line?
I also have a question about none wood and metal deck areas on the super structure.
I at a guess would think they are linoleum but what I do not know is what colour they are meant to be.
I would expect the German Navy had a standard type of linoleum they used but I have had a hard time finding any photos in colour of the Graf Spee that are not over exposed.
Any help would be most welcome.

[Olaf Held]

Hi Dave ~ The standard livery for KM vessels was medium grey (RAL 7000) for the hull and light grey (RAL 7001) for the superstructure. The boot-topping was dark grey (RAL 7016), as well as the steel decks. Below the waterline you need a brownish-red (RAL 8013). The latter is not available anymore, maybe a search engine's image search might help. The three grey tones are available from various model paint manufactureres, but under different names - the RAL numbers should give you a general idea about how the colours looked.

I don't know if Graf Spee or the other two pocket battlships featured linoleum on their decks - I guess not, as I couldn't find any reference to it in the KM paint regulations. What they did on a few decks, they covered the dark grey steel deck with wooden crated panels and wooden slatted panels, both of which are believed to have been slightly darker in colour than the main deck (teak).

You might find the "Calling all Ship Fans" section helpful, covering the "Panzerschiffe" as well:

viewtopic.php?f=47&t=9383

I highly recommend to have a look at the other threads about the KM vessels. When it comes to painting, none of them was special (apart from particular camouflage schemes).

Did I got it right that you have colour photos of Graf Spee?

Happy modelling ~ Olaf!

[Dave Stone]

Thank you Olaf for the help.
The only colour photo I could find was of her was from Spit head and it looks to have been a digitized on so fulse colour sorry.

sorry for late thank you for the help but have been away working again.

anyway I will start spraying today and see how I go