French Battleship Bretagne Deck Color

pibber · Post by **pibber** » Tue Feb 21, 2012 12:38 pm

- For aerial, I used very thin wire (differents sizes) from small differents electric spools.
I flattened a piece of wire by rolling it on a hard surface, and then, I cut it to the right size before pasting it with "cyanolite glue" on the model.

- Agree with you "pmskaar" !

Mikee · Post by **Mikee** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:52 am

<One>

Fullmetaljqcket,

The paint chips are paint chips only. However, S&S does sell WEM (White Ensign Models) enamel paints for WWII ships, and modern naval colors from several nations, which are based on the paint chips. (I think Snyder of S&S moved to the UK and set up WEM.) Most of the WWII US, IJN, UK and several of the German colors are available. WEM used to make Italian navy paints, but they dropped that range last year. (No French WWII colors, but but I use WEM modern french navy colors.) I get all my paints from S&S. Randy Short tells me that WEM is sometimes a bit slow in filling orders, but he tries to keep stock on hand.

WEM also has a US slate grey color, which Randy has. and that he tells me was used in WWI. Supposedly, the UK teak color is accurate for all wooden decks (although I use a US desert tan color for some decks; it's a bit darker.)

Randy Short likes to answer questions about camouflage and ship paints. He's always looking for more information on camo. Send him an e-mail.

PS: WEM apparently does not sell paint thinner, but I've found that Humbrol thinners work well. Randy tells me that one of his contacts recommends Testors enamel thinner,

fullmetaljacket · Post by **fullmetaljacket** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:47 pm

Thanls Mikee

Appreciate the information, only thing i hate is working wth enamels, but not a huge problem. I will email him since most of my navy at this time is world war one era. Trying to do the big ships BB, CB, CA, CL, And some DD 1:1 scale. Its the perfectionist in me. I have well over 100 ships at this time. But im getting side tracked.

fullmetaljacket

mark.hinds · Post by **mark.hinds** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 1:52 am

In general, the B&W deck photos I have of WWI French battleships and cruisers seem to show a non-wood surface. Could be some sort of linoleum, or painted bare metal; I would tend towards the former. It is also possible that they added wood after the war, so painting the older French BBs with mostly wood-colored decks in 1940 may be OK. The La Galissonniere class CLs started out with wine-red linoleum on their quarterdecks, and this was apparently covered over with teak just before WWII. See my TMP post here:

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=249421

MH

pibber wrote:Hello everybody !

Maybe theses black and white pictures may help you ...

1st one : The rear Lorraine's deck (sister ship of "Bretagne" and "Provence")
Don't know the year the picture was taken. Maybe after the WWII, in 1953, (few years before scraping).
We can see, it seen to be a metal deck. (very dark color)
<snip>

mark.hinds · Post by **mark.hinds** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 1:56 am

Keep in mind that a small scale model should normally be painted in a lighter shade than a full-scale paint chip. That's because colors in the real world typically appear lighter and less saturated when viewed from a long distance away.

MH

fullmetaljacket wrote:Thanls Mikee

Appreciate the information, only thing i hate is working wth enamels, but not a huge problem. I will email him since most of my navy at this time is world war one era. Trying to do the big ships BB, CB, CA, CL, And some DD 1:1 scale. Its the perfectionist in me. I have well over 100 ships at this time. But im getting side tracked.

fullmetaljacket

mark.hinds · Post by **mark.hinds** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 2:10 am

I assume most of you guys already know about these web sites, but here they are anyway. There may be further information to be extracted, here:

http://forummarine.forumactif.com/f27-l ... -1860-1921

http://netmarine.net/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=5

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/vi ... 722b34bbd1

MH

pmskaar · Post by **pmskaar** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 4:02 am

Hi Mark

Thanks very much for the info. I am still working on getting this painted and have opted for a very light gray overall with natural wood decks. What I am not sure about is steel deck area of the superstructure. A model of the Bretagne I saw on Steel Navy show it in 1929 with wooden decks and the superstructure is the same light gray as the hull. It does appear that in 1940, the turrets were back to light gray as opposed to the almost black color that this model show. I appreciate the help.

Pete

Mickel · Post by **Mickel** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 4:55 am

Mikee wrote: WEM used to make Italian navy paints, but they dropped that range last year.

You'll be pleased to know the greys are back, along with a couple of blues and a red.

Mike