"Ernie Pyle" Topic

I am building a model of the Ernie Pyle. This is a troop transport, C4 hull, launched June 26, 1945. Its' full class number is C4-S-A3. There were 15 of these ships built.
I am getting ready to paint the hull, however, I have several questions:

So far so good….

This must be the pregnant pause….

Ha, I was expecting this to be about a mini of ol' Ernie himself … though I can't imagine in what sort of situation someone would use the darn thing.

It appears that my entire question was not shown.
It continued:
1 What was the color of the ship from the waterline down? I have pictures of ships of that period showing three different paint schemes. Either all black, all red or a large black stripe at the waterline and red underneath.
2 I think haze gray for the upper hull. Is this correct?
3 What about the decks. What color were they?
This ship was launched in June of 1945.
Any help will be appreciated.
Dave Bohen

Ha, I was expecting this to be about a mini of ol' Ernie himself … though I can't imagine in what sort of situation someone would use the darn thing.

In any scenario that Ernie is in, he scores points for each event that he witnesses. The bigger, the best. At the end, total up the points (null if Ernie buys it).

This could also work for Frank Capra, or any other war correspondant.

Ok, it needs a bit of fleshing out, but there's the basic idea.

I like your idea, Jakar.

The hul would most likely be hull red witha black boot topping. As far as the uper works, bepends on what camo measure was used. For Ms 21, all vertical surfaces were Navy Blue 5-N. For Ms 22(IIRC), it would be Navy Blue 5-N up to the level of the main deck parallel to the waterline, and Haze Gray 5-H above that for the vertical surfaces. The horizontal surfaces would be Deck Blue 20-B. The paints are made by Testor's (available from Testor's directly or from Tower Hobbies online, but the Testor's Maritime acrylics have supposedly been discontinued) There are enamels made by White Ensign Models which are top notch. Polly Scale also makes the colors in acrylic, but they are a bit to blue and strong, lacking the more violet tinge of the 5 series of USN camo colors, but they can be toned down with some white and a few drops of violet.
Hope this helps.
Corsair

The Ernie Pyle is properly the SS Ernie Pyle. She was in the Merchant Marine, not the Navy. I don't know whether this makes a difference to the scheme or not.

This may help

picture

Thanks for the comments.
Question – if the ship didn't have the black boot toping what would the color be below the waterline? Black or "red"?
Dave Bohen

I suspect it would have been red since red lead was the usual anti-corrosion paint of the time. The Ernie Pyle was used after the war to transport DP's to the U.S. There are photos of her (?!!) in that configuration online. She appears to have an all black hull and white superstructure at that time. Her decks seem to be a dark color in the photos. I haven't been able to find any photos of her wartime service, which seems odd. I would expect to find at least a launching photo since nearly every launch had someone taking an official picture.

Thanks, this is the scheme I'll follow. When the war ended this is the ship that brought me back from Europe. Memory says that it was painted a dark gray. (I guess that may exclude haze gray) It took us 14 days to get home, we were in a storm most of the time. The bow of the ship would disapear when we would go into a high wave and the ship would shake. We supposed that the prop was out of the water and was causing the shake.
Big difference than when I went over, 4 1/2 days on the Queen Elisebeth.
Dave Bohen