"Color schemes for European ships" Topic

I am curious. How does anyone know what colors the trim and hulls of these ships were painted prior to color photography?
Admiralty records perhaps?

Has anyone done a guide for miniatures that is historically based? I usually just look at what other guys have done. And some B&W photos show ships with what is clearly a dark or black hull sometimes. But I do a lot of guessing and wonder if there is a resource for the era.

Here's a guide I've used for my 1905 Russo-Japanese War ships, but it covers the period back to about 1885.

link

Jim

ColCampbell's link is excellent.

I figure what you see in pictures and what happens in war are two different things. I game from 1850 through 1912 and I am currently working on a French vs British conflict circa 1882. At the British were generally black hulls with a thin white band, white upperworks for ships that had them and Ocher funnels, vent cowls and often masts, and this is what I am going with. In my vision I figure the conflict started suddenly, so many of the ships will go to battle in this scheme, though I am not ruling out the occasional ship sent out as reinforcements with a slapped on coat of grey.

The French are also as in ColCampbell's link… black hulls drybrushed with grey, and lighter upperworks, Ochre or red funnels and white boats.

Incidentally I was curious and poked around and found a cite that says it took 3000 gallons of paint to paint an Iowa class. BUT…. depending on where you read, it takes 200,000 or 400,000 or two million or four million gallons to paint the Ford depending on where you read. I chuckle. That would be 1200, 2400, 12,000 and 24,000 tons of paint on a 90,000 ton aircraft carrier. I doubt it.

As early as that you might also have the metal parts of a mast black and the wooden ochre (or even natural oiled wood in smaller vessels). Not certain when red funnel rings came in to mark different ships of a class. The French has some funnel markings too but haven't the details of that handy.

Also still have the tropical schemes for the colonial fleets – usually mostly white or light grey but with either ochre or black funnels.

Even as late as 1905 the supposed uniformity of ship colour schemes is not always borne out by eye witness accounts so not unreasonable to expect a degree of variation.

Thank you all! I have some of the early WTJ ships, dont recall this guide, but it is very helpful.

It looks like you make your best estimate, depending on the country, station, ship type, era, etc. I find this an interesting topic and am going to do some more research. Thanks for the inspiration!

How do you think they decided on the various colors for Warrior as she was being restored? Obviously, black hulls for the CHannel Fleet for much of its time. But what about other details?

Virtual, I am always very happy to see another guy gaming from 1850!

Ya…. wish I had a naval-positive opponent.

I just go solo with this …. It enhances my 19th century crackpot image, Along with my collection of French ironclads.