Martocticvs wrote:
She looks splendid! Great job
Your photos also do a good job of showing off how wildly different that dark grey can look depending on lighting conditions, exposure etc.
Interesting to see you used both 507A and B - obviously in your range as it stands right now these are distinctly different shades, but from what you've said recently they really should be the same. Did you mix them to arrive at a more 'correct' shade of grey?
Hi,
No this was started before I realised there was an issue. This model is actually the reason why I now own Colourcoats. I had purchased the kit from WEM and they went bust a few days later. I had contacted Dave Carter to ask about getting some Colourcoats and was put in touch with the liquidator. The rest just sort of happened after that... A bit like Peter Wheeler going in to get his TVR serviced and walked out having bought the company ...
The grey on the hull and weatherworks is all RN02 "507B". Even accounting for the fact that Home Fleet Grey was actually a touch darker, I think it has worked out ok.
The interesting thing however is that these Alan Raven derived schemes using 507A and 507B are close to correct but accidentally. As well as discovering more recently that there was just one Home Fleet Grey with different formulations and glossiness, I also found clear documented evidence that and entirely separate range of specialised non-slip deck paints was in use with the Royal Navy at the time. That probably doesn't sound so far fetched now with the benefit of hindsight.
The early war deck paints are described in June 1941 in a memo numbered 2533. It's an administrative memo advising the newly appointed supplier of said paint. it notes that:
3. Non-slip paint is supplied in the following colours:- Dark Grey, Light Grey, Home Fleet Grey, Bronze Grey and Black, and requirements should be demanded by the Dockyards on Form D.273, under sub-head E, Item 7 (A.F.O. 2859/39)Given strong photographic evidence that Home Fleet Grey ships exhibit a clearly darker shade on turret tops and steel decks, it seems plausible that in the absence of knowledge of the separate non-slip paint colours, people saw two greys and concluded that the darker one was 507A and the medium tone must be 507B. In a roundabout way using RN01 for the steel decks and RN02 for the vertical surfaces ends up being close to correct, but for the wrong reasons. I shall call this a happy accident. The Snyder & Short chip for 507A isn't necessarily in doubt by the way - but it's clearly labelled as being a 1920 sample. We have mapped out every documented record of a change to the Home Fleet Grey formula. It starts life shortly after WW1 as a very dark grey called 507A. In 1929 the Admiralty surveyed captains asking how often they repainted their ships (8 times per year was the average for a battleship, incidentally) and asked whether a higher quality paint could reduce this effort. The answer was affirmative and 507B replaced 507A in the Rate Books as Home Fleet Grey. The formula is adjusted through the 1930s getting proportionally less black content and proportionally more Egyptian Blue, then replacing that with the much stronger Ultramarine Blue - still called 507B and described as Home Fleet Grey. Then the war broke out and the Admiralty reintroduced the name 507A in 1939 to the same formula sans the enamel, then instructed the cessation of enamel use for war economies a little after that. The 507B formula disappeared and 507A is synonymous with Home Fleet Grey descriptions. 507B reappears again in 1947.
The deck paint colour palette seems to have been standardised in with the B & G series paints superseding everything else in spring 1943. At least, if I've seen anything specifically mentioning other colours of deck paint after this date, I have forgotten about it which is entirely possible!