RN aircraft carriers deck colour

piersyf · Post by **piersyf** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 10:20 am

Hi all. I'm starting a late war British fleet (1944/45) and trying to find the colour of the flight decks of the carriers. Being metal decks there's no reason for them to be brown unless deliberately painted that way; two suggestions I have seen are dark grey or green, but both are very tentative. Opinions?

BTW, I'm looking at both CV and CVE.

Cheers

battlewagon · Post by **battlewagon** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 11:49 am

Here is what little I have pulled from my reference books:
HMS Formidable, March 1944:
Flight deck - dark green (shade unknown)
Four color camouflage pattern on hull using: G5, B15, B30 and B55

HMS Avenger, date unknown - black and white overhead photo showing three tone camouflage pattern on the flight deck. (probably grays / blue grays)
Photo in Naval Camouflage 1914 -1945 A Visual Reference - page 103

Other flight deck colors referenced are B15 and dark gray (shade not given)
According to Warship Perspectives - Camouflage volume three - Royal Navy 1943 - 44 some of the American built CVE's had unpainted / unstained flight decks. Some may have carried the US Navy's deck blue color and still others may have been painted in G10.

If I come across anything else in my books or online I will post it here.

I hope this helps.

piersyf · Post by **piersyf** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 12:30 pm

It does help some, thanks. I had always thought the RN fleet carriers had green decks, but never got any confirmation. Clearly they changed over time, and from ship to ship. I have reasonable colours for all of the options given, and with the huge lack of specific info (and a move away from cam patterns after mid '44 I think I can do something reasonable.

P

piersyf · Post by **piersyf** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:22 am

I found a colour photo of a RN CVE deck in another forum last night (same question being asked) and ran the pic through photoshop to examine the colour range. What I found was quite interesting; depending on what part of the deck you sample you get either a khaki brown colour or a very blue grey, and there are no clear demarcations to suggest it is a part of a camo pattern. The line painted up the middle of the deck is a dirty off white (if I'm generous) but looks like a yellow brown wash has gone over it. I doubt very much that the RN would go for translucent washes (bad for discipline... how do you clean it?) so perhaps just a build up of dirt, oil, rubber, footprints, fuel spills... flight decks are very high traffic areas! The clincher for me was that ALL of the shadows returned a dark blue grey which suggests that is the direction of the colour (although I concede that shadows tend to the contrasting end of a shade, so 'should' have a blueish purplish leaning). I'm going to try dark blue grey, white line up the middle, then a light drybrush of 'dust' over the top. If it doesn't work I can always clean it off and start again.