BB63Missouri wrote:
I purchased a colour swatch from The Floating Drydock about 20 years ago of the WW2 USN colours.
The colours are from 1943-1945 and are known as Purple-Blues. Six colours are on the card:
5-P Pale Gray 5-L Light Gray
5-H Haze Gray 5-O Ocean Gray
5-N Navy Blue 20-B Deck Blue
5-N Navy Blue and 20-B Deck Blue are very dark.
I did some research and what I discovered was that purple paint was supplied in drums and white was added to make the different colours. I never discovered the ratio of the mix for each colour and I am certain that in the field the attitude would be "near enough is good enough". This would explain the blotched appearance of ships, as only the area needing repair would be painted.
I don't think this colour swatch is available any more.
FWIW, using FD's Camouflage 1, here are some of the purple-blue tinting medium (5-TM) to white (5-U) ratios for various colors. Deck Blue apparently used a different tinting medium for durability as pointed out elsewhere on this page.
September 1941: Haze Gray 5-H, 2 pints 5-TM to 40 pints 5-U; Ocean Gray 5-O, 5 pints 5-TM to 40 pints 5-U; Sea Blue 5-S,10 pints 5-TM to 40 pints 5-U; Deck Blue, 20 pints 20-TM to 40 pints 5-U. (I'm guessing that color-wise 20-TM was the same color as 5-TM, just a more wear resistant base.)
June 1942: Navy Blue 5-N, 15 pints 5-TM to 40 pints 5-U.
Just a sampling, but it shows the pattern. It is hard to believe, to my eyes, that 5-L, 5-P, and 5-H are all made with just the two colors 5-TM and 5-U, but it's true.
One thing I didn't like when I painted my first Tamiya BB-63 in 32/22D Dazzle was that the Tamiya paint mix using Tamiya paints as described in the kit instructions was totally lacking in any tinge of the purple-blue the original paint had. The Tamiya mix just ended up looking overall grayish. Yeah, I know there is still some discussion going on on this board about MO's colors when she left the East Coast and before the Dazzle was painted out, but I'm on the P-B side.