Prince of Wales deck colour

[polybebber]

As a change from aircraft modelling I would like to start my first ship build shortly: The Tamiya 1/350 Prince of Wales. I found a very informative discussion about the camouflage colours here, but my search revealed nothing about the deck colour. Most models I've seen show the deck colour to be a yellowish beige whereas the Tamyia instructions call for "deck tan" - which is obviously a grey shade. Which is correct ?
Pardon my ignorance if this has been asked before. Any help is appreciated.

Lothar

[EJFoeth]

The wooden decks were not painted, so anything teak-like will do, like deck tan. I think I'll use Humbrol 72: Khaki drill matt for my decks.

[Tracy White]

which is obviously a grey shade. Which is correct ?

First off - welcome aboard!

Second, to re-enforce what EJ said, the decks were not PAINTED gray. I don't know how often the Royal Navy holystoned the decks during war time, so they may have faded/weathered a bit, but they were natural wood and not camouflaged.

Here's some color shots of holystoned teak on US ships:
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/a0 ... c1b29.html (note the difference in color of the wet wood)
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/e8 ... dcf29.html
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/db ... 627c1.html
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/39 ... f9093.html
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/72 ... 7839e.html

I wasn't able to find any good similar shots in color for Royal Navy ships of the time.

[EJFoeth]

I do not have many nice color pics of RN decks in WWII, except for the few stills I made from the HMS Hood movie that Thomas Schmidt uploaded to youtube. The color chances much from frame to frame, so I added a few for an impression.

[Tracy White]

Looks fairly similar in tone and shift to the photos I posted. I just don't know enough about wood to know if there were different teaks the two navies used that would cause a base difference in appearance.

[EJFoeth]

My thoughts exactly. Still, not all glue-on wooden decks are so awful they do not come close.

[Tracy White]

They look better than the first generation sets, but I still prefer paint for better control of appearance.

[Paul O'Reilly]

Guys, about 10 years ago I conducted a phone interview with Canadian Admiral ret'd Richard Leir. He was assigned to Prince of Wales as a junior officer while she was fitting out. He was assigned to B turret as a range-finder whose station was the port range-finder. He was there during the Bismarck action and clearly remembers watching Hood blow up and Bismark switching fire to POW. As the turret was under director control he was pretty much a passenger at that time. He subsequently was with her when she was lost off Malaya in December. Prior to returning to the UK for reassignment he accepted a short commission with Exeter until the permanently assigned officer arrived in " a few weeks"! He ended up as a prisoner-of-war until 1945.

I asked him about the topic of deck colour and he said the decks were never painted that he can recall (he was well into his 90s at the time of the interview). He did say that the decks were often covered with a dark wash to tone down the brightness of the decks, especially in bright light conditions. The was was a diluted oil - turpentine liquid which darkened the deck but seemed to wash off with foot traffic, rain and the sea. He said it smelled terribly when initially applied and tried to avoid those area when it was being applied. I suspect this wash may be the reason some feel the decks were painted.

Paul

[EJFoeth]

Thank you for this addendum. This story of this officer sounds similar to John G Pike story in his book "Bamboo years". He also sailed on HMS PoW & Exeter and was subsequently interned in a POW camp.

[Vlad]

Just to chip in, I've standardised to using Humbrol 148 "Radome Tan" as my wood deck colour for all projects. Judging by the pictures above, it comes out a bit too yellow depending on how dull you think your deck should be, but it can always be weathered down and I consider it an ideal starting point.

[dick]

This picture is believed to show such oiling of the decks being conducted on Rodney.

[polybebber]

Thank you very much for your help and information, I think I've got a pretty good idea now

Lothar

[elahav]

So is there any consensus as to which colour to use as a basis for RN decks? The Airfix instructions for both Iron Duke and Warspite claim it should be 103 (cream), but I used it on the Iron Duke and it looks bad.

[LordAnkarin]

I just don't know enough about wood to know if there were different teaks the two navies used that would cause a base difference in appearance.

There are 3 species of Teak, only one is used commercially. Common Teak is the largest of the species, grows in several countries, and is used commercially for ship decks, outdoor furniture, housing, etc. Its light yellowish tan when new, just like we all see on models and grayish silver when weathered.

The other two species are both smaller trees, and only found in the Phillipines and Burma. They are pretty much only used locally for firewood, or house lumber.


Learned all about it when I considered building a couple deck chairs a few years ago. Quickly decided to use cedar after I saw the price tag