USN 20-B Deck Blue paint color

cbovill · Post by **cbovill** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 10:14 am

Testor's Model Masters Acryl Marine series has or had a color called 20-B Deck Blue that they had matched from the Snyder & Short paint chip set for the USN. My local HobbyTown is out of stock of this color and say they heard Testors was discontinuing the Model Masters paint line so they aren't going to order anymore. I went to the website and found it alive and well on their website. That was a week ago, so I go out there tonight and wanted to order that color and the website has reduced its listings from the full 64 colors down to 59, and of course, 20-B Deck Blue is not there.

Does anyone know of another acrylic paint that is a match for this color? It's hard to paint a USN warship without it.

Thanks,
Chris

paul · Post by **paul** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 12:15 am

Chris,

Did you look in the polly paint section? They have an acrylic version. If that does not work, I found some at hobbylinc.

Paul

av8rmongo · Post by **av8rmongo** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:43 am

I use the Poly-Scale line and have had great results.

Paul

battlewagon · Post by **battlewagon** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:41 pm

After visiting the USS Texas and taking lots of pictures, I mixed up my own deck blue. It is a 50 / 50 mix of Model Master Intermediate Blue FS35164 and Model Master Flat Sea Blue FS35042 and it looks like a good match to my photos of the color of the paint on the decks of the Texas.

I sure hope the Model Master paints are not going away. That is the best line of paints my local hobby shops carry.

cbovill · Post by **cbovill** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 2:45 am

Thanks for the info guys, I checked my paint collection and I could have sworn that I had seen a Weather Deck Blue by Polly S in there a few years ago, but I didn't find one. Of course the local hobby shop doesn't sell Polly S. But I do have both of those blues that Battlewagon mentioned, so I will have to give that a go.

Chris

ww2navyguy · Post by **ww2navyguy** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:56 am

Chris,

Brookhurst Hobbies sells Polly S acryllic paints. They have a website and seel the paints for about $3 per jar. Not sure of shipping. And I saw that they sell Weathered Deck Blue 20-B item# 505338. I think this might work.

Also I think Signal/Squadron also sells Polly S paints too. They both have websites.

Here is Brookhurst Hobbies link:
http://www.brookhursthobbies.com/
Look under "supplies" tab on the lfet and then click on "paints" on the new page.

Hope this helps.

Scott

paul · Post by **paul** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 6:27 am

Any good WWII Naval museums in DC? I plan to spend some time up there around Christmas and will be seeing as many museums and all that I can. I used to live but really do not remember much other than a couple places.

av8rmongo · Post by **av8rmongo** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:38 am

Paul,

If you can get to the Washington Navy Yard they have an excellent little museum for US Navy from inception to present. Also on the grounds outside they have barrels and shells from various periods including some IJN armor they tested US 16" guns against - very cool. There is an early DDG, used for ceremonial purposes that can be toured. All in all a neat little side trip.

Paul

ww2navyguy · Post by **ww2navyguy** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 8:00 am

Paul,

Not sure about any naval museums in the DC area, but I recently returned from a brief trip to the Battleship North Carolina in the Wilmington area.

Here's a few photos:

This was one of the best naval museums I have seen. If you ever get down to North Carolina, I would highly recommend this museum as a good one to visit.

Scott

cbovill · Post by **cbovill** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 11:15 am

I remember touring the USS North Carolina back when I lived there in '95 - great tour! Back then the ship was still in standard navy gray paint scheme, I love the new Measure 32/18d scheme they've got her in. The people of NC are really proud of here and it shows in her care and upkeep.

Chris

Mickel · Post by **Mickel** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 2:11 pm

These photos provide a example of hard it is to work out what colour something should be! The third photo showed what I expected to see. But I was surprised to see how blue the ocean grey appeared in the first two photos. Now try making a call on a sixty year old colour print.

Mike

cbovill · Post by **cbovill** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:51 am

So last night I mixed up a batch of Battlewagon's deck blue formula and I like the result 0 thank you! I may have to get a clean paint jar to save the mix in.

But I'm not happy with the way the flight deck stain came out for my carriers. It just does not complement the paint scheme of the carriers and is a lighter color than the hulls of the ships which are painted in navy blue, sea blue and ocean gray. I may have to come up with my own mix for this. It just doesn't feel right to have the flight deck lighter than the hull, or in the case of the Intrepid (navy blue), it looks the same color.

I remember a few years ago when I started building the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine I ran into all these issues, and it took a lot of time and practice to get the right look. At this scale, it is hard to rely on paint straight out of the bottle. I'm really going to have to stop building for a moment and do some visual comparison to find which colors are truly correct for the look I'm trying to get. Especially since the Intrepid is a gift for a friend and I really need her to be accurate, and right now she just doesn't look right. Too much gray, not enough blue.

Anyone have a good line on which colors work best to represent the USN at this scale? I prefer not to have to reinvent the wheel.

Chris