"Italian Naval Paint, Circa 1914" Topic

All right, I have another question regarding naval paint from the WW I era.

During my research on the Internet, I have seen it mentioned that Italy started out with what has been described a very dark blue gray and eventually going to an almost-white gray. Unfortunately, I have seen next to nothing in color to give an idea of what exactly this means.

So…

1. Does anyone have a color plate of some sort in their files to give a good visual reference to these paint schemes?

2. Can anyone recommend specific paints, say, in the Vallejo or Model Master range that might correspond to these colors?

Thank you in advance!

AW You should bear in mind that it the case of nearly all navies there was no standard paint colour for warships, and often when a standard was used it was mixed so that it had different look to batches that should have been exactly the same. Different yards used different paints.

I'm sure I read somewhere that one of the RN Beagle class destroyers that put in to an Italian yard in 1915 described the Italians ships having a creamy colour.

I would go with an egg white colour with a little medium grey in the mix. Not familiar enough with the various paint ranges to offer exact colours though, sorry

Mikasa: Thanks for the suggestion. I had been thinking of going with what you described paint-wise. I just didn't want my Italian ships to look too much like my Austro-Hungarian ones.

I had thought about using Vallejo 904, Dark Blue Grey for the early-war scheme, but I don't know if this would be dark enough. I will probably prime in black though, so it might work.

Will be interested to hear how you get on.