I have a simple question.
Is the deck on some fletcher class destroyers painted blue? I have the 1/350 Tamiya kit, and it’s showing the deck as blue (feild blue i belive). I have looked online and have not come across any references to blue decks.
Yep, blue. Not field blue but a dark blue.
See the descriptions of the camouflage measures at shipcamouflage dot com
http://www.shipcamouflage.com/measures.htm
Refer to Measures 12 and up. The measures call for 20B Deck Blue. The deck may have been painted in a pattern of 20B and Ocean Gray (5-O) in some of the Measure 3x dazzle patterns
Thanks for the link. The info is quite helpfull for making a pattern without to much photo reference.
The Tamiya Fletcher includes a full-size painting pattern for the Ms12 Mod applied to the USS Fletcher. Make Xerox copies of the painting instructions and cut them up to use as masks. Hull is Navy Blue (5-N) and Ocean Gray (5-O). Upperworks is 5-O and Haze Gray (5-H).
Measure 12 Mod did not have formal patterns. The dapple patterns were designed on the fly by the ship’s CO, First Lieutenant (i.e. the officer in charge of the deck division), and/or the yard camouflage officer.
Chalk the pattern on and fill in the blocks
Never thought of that, but how do I apply the cut outs so that i get a good edge? The best i can think of is to transfter the shape to tamiya tape and stick them on so it will mask the camo color (first spray the camo color onto the area then mask it off and respray the main color). I’ll be using a airbrush for this.
and i’m guessing that the colors that tamiya lists are accurate or very close to the orgional colors? i do not need them to be perfect (not using PE or any extras on this kit)
And thanks again for the info.
Use something like a UHU or Elmer’s watersoluable glue stick.
Paint the hull ocean grey. Cut out the gray masks. Smear some of the glue on the backside & wait for it to get tacky. Apply the mask (position can be adjusted slightly by sliding). Burnish the edges down well. Spray the blue. When the paint is dry put the part in some warm water. The glue softens and the paper mask can be removed. Do similar with the superstructure. Paint the hase gray first then mask & do the ocean gray
You can also use the painting instructions to make masks from frisket film or low-tack tape (such as 3M Post-its
And no, the paint recommendations called out in the Tamiya instructions are not accurate. They just want to sell you their paint. Colourcoats by White Ensign Models are the most accurate. Pollyscale has some acrylics which are pretty close. ModelMaster AcrylII Marine colors are now OOP, but if you can find them they are as accurate as the Colourcoats
wow, thanks again.
Cleaning up the house this morning and happened across this. This is what the Fletcher looked like (as commisisoned)
This is my 1:700 scale Round-bridge Fletcher in Measure 12R. You can tell it is 1:700 scale by the 1:1 scale fingerprints in the dust. The flag staff is broken.
I started with the Tamiya kit, which is waterline. I added the underhull from the PitRoad drydock set to make the whole-hull. I reduced the 1:350 camouflage pattern to 1:700 scale on the office Xerox and copied it onto photo frisket film. The colors are PollyScale. Colourcoats was not available at the time. The walkways are Dunagin Decals. They are now OOP.
This model placed third in small ships in the 1999 IPMS National convention in Orlando, FL.
thanks for showing this photo. It resolves a issue i had with the deck color.
ZzZGuy,
I have the same model and have been looking through the instructions since it’s the next model I intend to build (and my first surface ship). The instructions show the deck color to be a mix of Tamiya XF-50 (Field Blue) and XF-9 (Hull Red) at a 2:1 ratio. I haven’t tried to see what color that mix actually makes, but it seems that it would be some kind of purple. Anyway, that’s what it says in the instructions.
TomB
I’ts actually a darkish grey that is slightly off somehow(color wise). I didn’t like the color and so i added some bright blue (i’ll edit this post and add the percise name tomorrow) and got a nice dark blue. I’m also am not overly pickey on the color being historicaly accurate. I’m expermenting on having sun faded effect with the paint as well as high lighting details, and camo. If you want accurate colors there is a recomendation on what brand is best further up in this post.
ZzZGuy,
That’s interesting. Do you know if the “off” grey color was supposed to be historically accurate? It seems like a weird mixture of colors, so I would assume that it was done purposefully to duplicate the “correct” color, whatever that is. I’m new to ships, so I’m taking Tamiya’s word for it, but for all I know those two colors could just be slow sellers for them. Any suggestions on good sources for researching historic details for ships of this class? Also, any sources of tips for a first-timer on weathering techiques specifically for these kinds of surface ships would be appreciated. Thanks,
TomB
Tamiya’s model instructions generally specify Tamiya paints. Think about it, if you were in the business would you recommend your competitor?
In WWII, the US Navy largely based its camouflage paints on a purple/blue tinting system. The mix specified was someone at Tamiya’s attempt to mix paints to try to replicate the colors. It really doesn’t come out well.
The most accurate, out of the bottle paints for naval colors, pre-war, WWII, and postwar are the Colourcoat line of paints by White Ensign. They have been formulated using the original paint specifications or by scrapings from historical ships. One of the people involved is a paint conservator by training, and in a prior life. The Colourcoats are enamels. Almost as good, but in a narrower range is the Modelmaster Acryl II Marine line of paints. These are now out of production, but you may still fidn them occasionally. Close, but not totally accurate are PollyScale’s acrylics.
As far as online sites with good reference information, start with shipcamouflage.com
http://www.shipcamouflage.com/warship_camouflage.htm
Be sure to read Alan Raven’s monograph on the development of Naval Camouflage. Then go over the various camouflage measures and paints.
The other recommended site is Navsource
This is an online photo database of almost every ship which ever served in the US Navy. See the section on destroyers for a lot of good pictures
Then there is the US Naval Historical Center’s Online Photo database
http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/nhcorg11.htm
There is a lot of good information and photos.