"Deck Colours" Topic

I am primarily a Napoleonic wargamer but at one point in time in the 80's I purchased a nice collection of 1:2400 CinC and GHQ WW1 naval miniatures (and Seekrieg 4 rules). I wish to start adding to that collection but I had a couple of quick questions for those more knowledgeable on the subject than I.
- It seems I was rather imaginative with the painting of the decks of my existing ships as I have a wide range of dark brown, mid brown, natural wood, buff etc. deck colours. Was there a wide variation of deck colours on real WW1 ships or not? What colours are you using to paint your decks? (I use Vallejo paints)
- What models are people using for their 1:2400 WW1 ships these days and are there any rule sets standing out these days? (simpler is good) Thanks for your input.

There was wide variation in deck colors. Some decks got painted, others didn't; different decking materials had different colors; the amount and type of weathering changed those colors over time. Even an individual vessel could have different deck colors at different parts of the same war.

For WWII, I tend to try to pick a year or a particular action for each ship and paint it according to the best information I can find, but for WWI, I tend to give each nation a distinctive deck color that is at least plausible. Since the ships are all variations on gray, this helps to identify friend from foe at a glance. The horizontal surfaces are a majority of the visible area to the gamer's perspective, much more so than the vertical surfaces we can see in photos and paintings.

- Ix

Eldorado,

You may find this useful:

gwpda.org/naval/s1200000.htm

And the catch is finding where the painting of metal ends for planking, if it was left like that. At the early stages.

So, what are some good Vallejo colours for decks in WWI?

Im getting ready to paint my British and German Dogger bank fleets

Digby Green

I use Deck Tan for British and Beige for German.

A point to remember is that when teak weathers, it gets darker, not lighter.

I dunno offhand what ships had teak decks in WW1 but I do know Prince of Wales did in WW2 so there may have been some.