Deck Colours

[ferg220683]

Good morning everyone

Firstly, I apologise as i'm fairly sure that this topic will have been posted before

However, I would like some advice on which colour of brown you recommend for your decks.

I am currently using Revell "Aqua Colour" Acrylic paint as I find this easy to clean. Is there a generic brown shade you guys use?

The ones I seem to pick look too dark. I am currently modelling RN Ships although I am looking to branch out into Kreigsmarine, US Navy and IJN ships in the near future

Thank you

Ferg

[Olaf Held]

Revell's Aquas are great, I have that feeling that those paint 'containers' never empty. With regard to the deck colour, I assume we're talking about the look of teak here.

I hope you're not afraid of mixing paints. As a base coat I use my own brew of five parts light grey #371 and one part beige #89.
Well, the 371 is not quite correct, but close to my superstructure light grey, which is a 50/50-mix of #5 and #374.

The image attached is my Scharny in progress, the deck has yet to receive a wash and a bit more detailing with the graphite pen, but should provide an impression of the colour under artificial light. Well, in reality, the colour is a tad on the grey side than on the image.

Please share your progress.

The teak colour fo the other navies shouldn't be that different. If I recall correctly, the IJN did not use teak, but something else with a more yellowish appearance.

Happy painting ~ Olaf!

[ferg220683]

Super

Thanks for your prompt reply. I'll have to head down to the shop on my rest days this week and see if I can pick up those colours

Just as another reference point, what colour do you paint your superstructures? The IJN ships always appear to be a really dark grey compared with others

Ferg

[Tracy White]

They were. The Japanese used a dark gray color, but there were variations by shipyard.. Sasebo Gray looks different than Kure Gray if you compare two paint chips. If you care enough to care (??) the best advice is to look up a particular ship's TROM (Tabular Record of Movement) on CombinedFleet and look for th elast shipyard visit before the action you want to base your time frame on. Otherwise choose a dark gray you like.

The Japanese decks were hinoki cypress, but like any wood it weathered, so color varied. In some cases, decks were stained with soot to darken them as a rudimentary camouflage.

[John Snyder]

Well, Tracy, if one wants to avoid having to read through all those TROMs, one can simply purchase the booklet I put together listing virtually the entire Imperial Japanese Navy, ship-by-ship, with the appropriate gray they wore at any given time:

https://www.whiteensignmodels.com/c/Fle ... tes/249/1/

Also, only a few of the IJN capital ships--Yamato, Musashi, Nagato--used Hinoki Cypress; the rest used teak.

[Tracy White]

Point taken; since I'm not really an IJN fan I don't have a copy and had forgotten about that!

[Eric Bergerud]

I've got John's booklet on IJN colors: been very useful. Although I've got a Yukikaze and I think it will get a scale effect. My old 700 Kurishima is painted one of the Tamiya arsenal colors (the right one - I forget) and it's very hard to see. Maybe that's what camo is for, but even if nobody else sees them, I kind of like looking at my little navy.

Eric

[JosephLalor]

I gather that HMS Nelson and HMS Rodney had pine decks. Would they have differed appreciably in colour from teak decks?

Joseph

[Weasel48]

I am working on a 1905 vintage USS Washington (ACR-11, armored cruiser). The drawings I have call out decks of "yellow pine." From a past life in the US "South," I recall that wood as being rather resinous, with strong contrast between the light and dark rings- and sort of yellow-ish.

What would it look like after weathering? Would it get painted over as part of a camo scheme? (the Washington went from "White and Buff" to overall gray in ~1909-11)

Data for USN ships 1900-1916 tends to be a bit sparse (OK, I'm 1/2 of the two people I know that care about that class), so any snippets of info are sincerely appreciated.

Weas

(Oops! I meant "Armoured" Cruiser!)

[Tracy White]

I've seen nothing that indicates decks were camouflaged that early. Given the infancy of aviation at the time there was really no reason to consider it.

[John Snyder]

Only Yamato, Musashi & Nagato used hinoki cypress. Other IJN battleships had teak decks. Hinoki cypress is much lighter than teak when holystoned (I have a sample sitting here).