Navy Colors to Vallejo

Modeling Subjects Ships
1

Hi,

I 'm working on a Trumpeter 1/350 Texas. Planning Measure 31a Camouflage Design 8B. I would really like to use Vallejo Air on this model.

I’m looking for equivalent colors or mix formulas for 5-H Haze Grey, 5-O Ocean Grey, 5-N Navy Blue and 20-B Deck Blue.

Many thanks for your help…

2

This is what I have.

5-H Haze Grey - Model Color 905 Pale Blue Grey

5-O Ocean Grey - Model Color 903 International Blue

5-N Navy Blue - Model color 816 Luftwaffa uniform WWII, Model Air 005 International Blue

20-B deck blue Model color 867 Dk Blue Grey

I thin Model color paints for spraying with Vallejo airbrush thinner about 60 parts paint to 40 parts thinner, then add up to 10% Vallejo airbrush flow improver and a couple drops retarder so it doesn’t dry so quickly. I only do this when I can’t find an equal in model air color to model color. I sure do like the way model color brushes on without brush strokes though.

3

There is a neat little program called iModelKit installed on my phone. It allows the user to mix paints to match a color. White Ensign Models makes the colors you’re interested in. The program will use the White Ensign Model paint as the reference and then use Vallejo Model Air colors to mix. For instance using WEM 5-O Ocean Gray from late 1941, you will use Vallejo Model Air:

71.109 Faded Pru Blue 7 parts

71.111 UK Med Blue/USAF Light Blue 3 parts

71.310 IJN Deep Dark Green2 parts

71.113 IDF Blue/US Intermediate Blue 1 part

You’re pretty close with the first color, but adding the other colors it’s nearly spot on. Depends on the level of effort one wants to apply.

4

According to the very reliable Snyder and Short website, BB34 was the only ship of that class in those measures through 1945.

If that’s helpful, BB35 seemed to go from 12 to 22 to 21.

5

Thanks everyone. I’ve got a lot more information to post tomorrow When I get a minute.

6

Hi,
Here’s what started me on this quest. http://www.ipmsswamp.com/files/VallejoWWIINavalColorEquivalents.pdf I don’t know who the author is but amazing work. So I like to use Vallejo Air. This was a bit of a dead end.

Next up was the great post on iModelKit. Great piece of software… It does a lot but what it does really well as if by magic is color match using a tool called Paint Mixer. Using that tool I was able to get a very close matches. The software will give an exact match but I just wanted a good match. What I was going for is described in the software as , “This is what is generally used as tolerance in standards.”

The results are measured in Delta Cie 2000.

= 0.0 absolutely perfect match
< 0.01 perfect match
< 0.5 excellent match
< 1.0 good match
<= 10.0 moderate match

10.0 poor match

In the following my reference color to match were Model Master Enamels using Vallejo Model Air. And the results are as follows,



Model Master

Val Air













Delta Cie


2156 5-H Haze Grey USN

1 Part 71.112

4 Part 71.108

8 Part 71.276





0.81


2157 5-O Ocean Grey

2 Part 71.113

3 Part 71.111









0.33


2158 5-N Navy Blue

1 Part 71.105

10 Part 71.111

13 Part 71.266





0.12


2159 20-B Deck Blue

1 Part 71.109

4 Part 71.087

13 Part 71.115





0.79


























White Ensign Model Paint





















US 14 Norfolk Red

3 Part 71.300

5 part 71.108

8 part 71.105

16 part 71.102

0.09
























So there it is, it is possible….

The USS Texas only wore camouflage Measure 31a/8b for only three months (October 1944-January 1945). When she reached Pearl Harbour before heading out to Iwo Jima she was repainted in Measure 21. I have no idea why.

Cheers!

Save

7

I see that looking at Navsource. There’s a photo dated 11/11/44 which makes a point of noting that shes in that camo measure combo. Kind of hard to see in the photo.