World War Two paint scemes for Naval vessels

baineblade · Post by **baineblade** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:33 am

I am looking for information on paint scemes of all the world war two naval vessels and other objects in the GHQ micronaughts line. I am also wondering what paints I should purchase from the online store. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

VonTed · Post by **VonTed** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:56 pm

Ditto!

I'd like an idiots guide to painting WW2 ships.

I have my first batch of minis on the way!

av8rmongo · Post by **av8rmongo** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 7:41 pm

That's a pretty tall order for references for ALL the ships but here's some ideas. Clash of Arms games has a decent entry level offering titled Painter's Guide to WW2 Naval Camouflage. I say entry level because it tries to cover some af all the major navies but doesn't provide more than a couple pages per navy. If you google "shipcamoflage" you should get the Snyder and Short webpage which has a very extensive database of US camouflage measures as well as offering excellent books on UK warships. Additionally they have paints and paint chips available for the major Navies. Beyond that there are one of a kind books for each navy such as the one regia-marina just received for the Italian Navy, of course those are much more expensive. Hope this is enough to get you started.

Paul

baineblade · Post by **baineblade** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 10:51 pm

Sorry, let me broaden that ^^;; What I meant was camoflague for the navies, not each individual ship. I'm just lookin for examples so I can get an idea of how they painted them. Sorry about that.

cbovill · Post by **cbovill** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:54 am

You'll need books, books and more books, and then sprinkle in some websites. Some basic info though:

British Home Fleet: Dark grey hulls and upperworks
British Medetterranean Fleet: Light grey hulls and upperworks
Camo colors for the RN are mostly greens and greys and the precise colors are on many different sites - google them. RN camo schemes could drive you insane - too much variation to mention.

German Navy: Medium grey hulls, light grey upperworks.
Camo depended on sea zone of operations - black/white ID stripes for the Baltic, dark blue/grey bands for Norwegian,... and oh such pretty colors on the turret tops!

Japanese Navy: Basic grey depended on the shipyard - there were four different greys used. Very little camo in the IJN.

USN: You name it, they used it. Lots of blues and grays. Camo patterns more predictable than RN but still very numerous.

Italian Navy: Regiamarina has got this pretty well covered for you on this forum.

Chris

Mickel · Post by **Mickel** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 5:43 am

The two most common US schemes were:
MS-21 - all vertical surfaces 5N Navy Blue and all horizontal surfaces 20B Deck Blue.
MS- 22 - hull to the lowest point of the deck 5N Navy Blue, 5H Haze Grey above that on the vertical surfaces. All horizontal surfaces 20B Deck Blue.

Then there are the variations on a theme with the later war MS-31/32/33 splinter patterns and the early war MS-12 and MS-12mod (the free-for-all blotchy, wavy pattern common in '42)