"WW1 British & German Paint schemes" Topic

I am looking for a simple paint scheme to distinguish ships.

This is my hazy memory from a while back:

British ships started a dark grey then went to mid-grey.

Germans were mid-grey. They sometimes had identifying marks on funnels when at sea, and a white circle on turrets. Black turret tops?

Q1---So should German ships be a shade lighter or should British and German all be roughly similar shade of grey?

Both had a dark brown artificial material which was on uppder decks – the German material was a bit more reddish.

The board decks were a very pale colour.
Q2 -----> any paint suggestions for this colour?

Both torpedo boats and destroyers were black, the British morphed into grey later in the war.
Q3 ----> black with grey drybrush? or very deep grey with heavy black wash?

This is for 1/3000 so I am not wanting to detail every rivet – but if you have suggestions for colours (like Vallejo/Citadel) that gives each fleet a national flavour whilst being quick to accomplish, I'd appreciate it.

I'm thinking basecoat, black wash, drybrush?

WW1 is not exactly handy for colour photos… :-/

gwpda.org/naval/s1200000.htm

link

MH

I use dark and mid grey for the Brits and a very light gray for the Germs. British decks are a light tan and Germans a darker tan. Brit DDs are grey, Germans black. From my photo collection that seems valid and differential.

Eville
Google Malcolm Wright – you will get some links with what you want.

Thanks all! Shagnasty – your answer was what I was after…

"This is for 1/3000 so I am not wanting to detail every rivet – but if you have suggestions for colours (like Vallejo/Citadel) that gives each fleet a national flavour whilst being quick to accomplish, I'd appreciate it."

(I had read Mal Wright articles in the past)

I don't plan on putting on every pennant or painting decks close to funnels black etc…

I am a little unsure of good deck colours to get that 'sanded wood' deck paint shade.

Does anyone have a recipe (Vallejo or Citadel) that got a good result?

If you dont want to go into detail just give the German ships a medium grey hull and light upper works. The British medium to dark grey all over.
The best washed out deck wood colour is a bit of sand mixed with some pale grey.

I use a wash on my 1:6000 scale. Paint the ship all over pale grey. Use a thin black wash over all, then add a brown wash to the decks. Tops of the funnels black. That about all folks. At the distance they will be seen on the tabletop they will look great. It also works for 1:3000 scale.

But of course there are a few ships I like to paint us special, so they will be seen in camouflage or specific schemes.

For the bases I use clear plastic exclusively so the colour of the sea table top is the same for them. But adding a flag on the base looks good. Very easy to print out lots of tiny flags and names. I combine them as one ie; the flag and name together.

In addition to dazzle camouflage colors, RN ships wore 5 different greys during WW1. Both RN and Imperial German Navy WW1 colors, along with a deck teak, are available from White Ensign Models: link

British larger warships started out with a very dark "battleship grey" (like charcoal) but then got lighter as the war progressed, partly due to pigment shortages. They are much darker than the German ships, which had lighter than medium grey hulls, and an even lighter grey on the higher structures. Both sides had dark, almost black, on the tops of the turrets of battleships (the British color was Brunswick Green). Late in the war German battleships had white circles on some turret tops for aerial recognition.

The decks on British battleships were scrubbed almost white. I use an "ivory" paint for this. Hard working light cruisers did not have the decks scrubbed to such a light color as the war progressed. The German decks were darker. I use a more yellowish "deckplank" color, but tan or khaki shades would be good.

Destroyers were black for both Germany and Britain at the beginning of the war. Although there was a pigment shortage as the war progressed, I think most destroyers were still very dark as late as the Battle of Jutland. Of course, the smaller the scale, the lighter the shade of paint needs to be to get the right effect.