"Colors of Russian 1st Pacific Squadron" Topic

What colors are the Battleships of the 1st Pacific Squadron?
Some sources say that he Battleships should be Olive over all, while others say that they should be two toned Khaki/dark red brown. Some photos after the battle and subsequent after the Port Arthur surrender seem to show that the Tsesarevich and Retvisan were overall a dark color (olive green?), while the Pobieda and Poltava are obviously in two tones. I would guess that the Peresviet and Sevastopol would be painted like their sisters. So the question is; for the battle of the Yellow sea, should the Tsesarevich and Retvisan be painted green and the others in two tone (Khaki/dark red brown)?

I've seen models in 'Pacific Olive' and seen the color debated endlessly but has there ever been a photograph or IJN written reference to an actual ship in that color? I have seen multiple references to the black/very dark gray as having a cinammon or brownish cast.

If you go to militaryimages.net, and look at the battle damage pictures of the Tsesarevich, the ship looks to be painted in a dark, but not black color, and looks to be painted entirely in that color. These differ from pictures of the Pobieda which IS painted at least in two different colors.

I don't think there is any doubt about the two tone paint jobs as illustrated by that Port Arthur picture of Pallada and Pobida but I keep coming back to the British observer who referred to that brownish black/cinammon tinged color that might also be what the black and white photos are showing. Certainly I think you'd be justified in chosing that olive as every bit as likely as anything else. Personally I think olive makes for a much better looking ship.

I got stuck into this subject a few years ago when I was painting up this fleet. In a nutshell olive green hulls and cinnamon upperworks would seem to be the overall consensus. My fleet painted in this scheme looks great.

All my study indicated dark brown. That is the way I painted mine and I've seen no new info to change my view.

Shagnasty I've never seen anything about a dark brown color,where did you get your info for painting your ships?

Captain Gideon

Was it not a U.S. observer (McCully?) who said cinnamon? I went for grey olive, for similar reasons as McKinstry. In my feeble recollection, I decided that grey olive might have been the colour used when the white scheme was first replaced, but that it was possible that as time went on some sort of brownish colour was used either because paint stocks would be under pressure or because the ships were mainly in harbour or seen against land and something brown(ish) would be a decent compromise. There's some relevant material on this on the War Times Journal site too. But in short, nobody (who you are likely to meet) knows.

Ooh, and when I say "grey olive", there was an enamel I used straight out of the tin on my 1/3000th models, with some lighter drybrushing. From memory I think it was Revell 45. I have pictures somewhere – possibly the WTJ Yahoo group, which I can't check at the moment sorry …

This is what I decided to do for the 1st Pacific Squadron.
Khaki over Dark Green,
link

Thatīs really beautiful work, what scale are they?

Houston Ships 1:1000
I replaced the masts and funnels from all of my Houston's ships.
Houston Ships masts and funnels are generally too big. I go to THE BLUEPRINTS, download the drawings of the ships I want, measure the waterline length of the Houston's ship, and rescale the drawing to that size.
I can then use that drawing to build the masts and funnels, as well as any other modifications needed to the hulls.