Just starting the HobbyBoss LPD-21, to be done as LPD-20 USS GREEN BAY. On line photos show a strange to me brownish color for the decks with the flight deck showing wearing to gray. Any thoughts on what color to actually do the decks?
Thanks,
Tsquare
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Wood at sea and in time starts to fade. On a brand new vessel it is indeed an intense brownish tan color, but due to the constant washing of the deck and the salinity of the air around the ship it can happen that some of that tannish color vanes being replaced by a grayish tan.
This also depends of the type of wooden planks placed on top of a deck. Some kinds of wood stand better in the passage of time and others instead loose their luster and indeed their color.
It just depends on what you want to depict. If brand new, then I would say you use a brownish tan paint, but if you want to show an extensively used one, then go for the more grayish tan variant.
After all even trees do not have fully brown bark around their trunks, and many are rather more grayish tinted than fully brown.
Of course in your case we speak of planks and those depict the heart of a tree. Depending on what kind of tree such planks were cut and produced the color may also vary.
My suggestion is to go deeper in your research and browse around online to see if you can find some good pictures of the LPD-20 USS GREEN BAY or other same ship and make sure you find some well light exposed ones.
But to help you out since we are talking of a modern ship, there are no wooden planks on deck and instead, as far as I could judge from pictures I have seen of both decks of the GREEN BAY, if there are some they are fully covered with tar. Tar, when new is a kind of very dark gray, almost black, but when constantly used it may lighten up to a medium gray.
I am posting some pictures I have found online of the ship you are about to model and as you will see, the colors vary according to exposure, but also in wear and tear. Especially the rear deck has considerable variances due to fuel and oil leaks.
For you to judge. I hope this will help you decide which color is best.
And here is the link to the pictures I posted here:
PS: In my opinion I would opt for Medium Gray and then weather the surface with a Dark Brown mixed with either some of that Medium Gray for oil leaks, or even mix that Medium Gray with Midnight Blue (Very Dark Blue) for fuel leaks and turn them into washes by either adding a generous amount of thinner (if you use enamels) or water/acrylic thinner if you plan to paint it in acrylics and just lightly apply them here and there where the helicopters are usually positioned.
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Thanks, Patrick,
My confusion aside from deck gray is this…
The kit also calls for a brownish color. Guess I’ll just go with a deck gray. Thanks for your input.
Harpooner
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The decks on modern USN warships are made from steel. Standard decks are painted in deck gray, which is quite similar in color to FS 36118. Flight Decks are coated with a special textured paint in a similar color, while vertical surfaces are painted Haze Gray. With exposure to the sea air, sea spray, the sun, and use the deck color will fade. And of course there are operational stains such as hydraulic fluid, fuel and oil spills, skid marks from tires, etc.
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Glad I could be of some help, but “stikpusher” said and explained it best.
Just right. I just tried to explain how the previous decks were. I probably omitted the steel part (me bad) and that was my own fault.
But yes, you are completely right with the paint colors you mentioned.