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Proper colors for carrier decks and airfields


BILLT

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I have recently purchased Eduard WWII US and Japanese aircraft carrier decks and metal airfield decking. There is no info provided for the proper colors for each. Any help would be appreciated. Also what is refered to as "pin wash".

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I'll offer the following as a guide, but don't accept it as "gospel"....

 

American decks prior to WWII were natural wood color, or basically a "yellow/tan". Somewhere right around the beginning of the war, it was realized that they needed to be painted blue to blend in with the ocean when seen from the air, so they were painted "deck blue". That's a blue/grey that (to me) looks very similar to the a/c blue-grey used in 1942/43 on Wildcats and Devastators. Later ship camo (like the Saratoga in '44) went to an overall darker blue, but the concept was the same....a blue that would make the deck harder to spot from the air. You may find more useful information in the Sq. Sig. "Aircraft Carriers in Action" books.

 

Japanese decks seem to have always been a tan color. I've never seen any depiction of them being camouflaged. This may have been simply due to the fact that their carrier forces were used only sporadically after 1943 and they never spent the money and time on repainting. One thing you may note is that the planking on Japanese decks runs bow to stern while American deck planking runs span-wise across the deck.

 

A pin-wash is a term for a wash that is applied in a pin-point manner, as opposed to a wash that is generally slopped on. It's applied with a fine pointed brush and the attempt is to limit the wash only to the detail (bolt head, panel line, whatever) where the brush touches. When applied correctly, there's no need to wipe the excess away (though this can be done if needed).

 

Hope this helps!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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Osprey's book Imperial Japanese Navy Aircraft Carriers 1921-45 shows late war (44) carriers Zuiho,Chitose and Chyuo with a camo flight deck pattern of light and dark green angular patterns with black or really dark green. They still had the red & white "barber pole" striped aft landing area though. It seems the scheams were used to break up the shape of the flight deck, and give the illusion that the ship being attacked was something other than a aircraft carrier. Each pattern was unique. Add some greenish brown to the color chart too. The hull of the ship meantime was painted a bright green base which was overpainted with the silhouette of a smaller ship like a destroyer or cruiser; this in an effort at anti-sub camo. The smaller ship silhouette was a dark drab green.

Taiho had an armored flight deck painted dark navy grey. Amagi used the green pattern.. these patterns are like uneven chevrons going down the flight deck from aft to foreward and suddenly theres a big dark green letter I (capatol eye..quick more beer) from side to side right in the middle of the deck. Others had oddly drawn (impressionistic?) turrets rotated for & aft (2D from above looking) in the darker green. Unscruitable stuff what? Have fun with the deck......

G.L.

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