Hi Guys, I'm an armor rat who is just getting into ships. I'm building Trumpeter's 1/350th Essex kit and have a few questions on colors.
What color were the lifeboats on a WW2 US carrier?
What color was the deck, the instructions call for navy blue, but I saw discussions with other colors listed.
Would the deck have any sections showing more wear than the others?
I know some of these are trivial questions, but, like I said, I'm an armor guy and don't want to be laughed at when I take this monster to our local IPMS shows!
Regards, Ed

Hi Ed,
Ship's boats were painted to match the camouflage of the area of the ship where they were carried. Essex's flight deck was made of Douglas fir, stained blue with Flight Deck Stain 21. Steel decks were painted 20-B Deck Blue. The inside of the hangar deck was painted #20 Standard Deck Gray, and the bulkheads (walls) and overheads (ceilings) of the hangar bay were painted white. E-mail me at [email protected] if you need further info.

A quick modification to what John said; the bulkheads around the aircraft elevators were a dark color.. .either 5-N Navy Blue or Deck Blue, so that when the elevator was lowered there wasn't a white bulkhead to stand out. Some ships had a 6' band of black around the top so that they could lower the elevator a bit and run-up the engines in the hangar at night without having much light escape.