Greetings from Downunder.

I have just started my Trumpeter 1/350 USS North Carolina and am up to the stage where I want to paint the deck. I am in a dilemma at the moment as the Trumpeter instructions say to paint it Deck Blue Gunze H365, but the pictures i have seen of the actual ship now the deck is natural wood by the look of it.

If it is supposed to be Deck Blue, is their a paint manufacturer who actually produces the correct colour?

Thanks in advance.

Good morning Warren,
Lifecolor have just released two sets of WW II USN colours. You can also order the colours seperately here for example:
https://airbrushes.com/product_info.php?products_id=20873
Cheers,
Julian

Thanks for that Julian.

Looks like the North Carolina will be going back into the stash for a while until the two sets of paints I ordered get here. The grey I used looks nothing like the correct colour. Now what to start as a replacement..

Warren, I'm working on North Carolina myself. According to my research, if you are depicting her during any of her war time fits you want your decks to be "deck blue". As far as paint is concerned, I've used White Ensign Colourcoats almost exclusively since I got back into modeling a bit over a couple of years ago. Excellent quality paint that both air brushes and brush paints well. They also have a nice range of colors specific to military subjects for both modern and WW 2 eras that are, as far as I can determine, quite accurate.

I hope you'll post some shots of your North Carolina for us. If you want to exchange notes about the kit one on one, feel free to e-mail me. My e-mail is in my profile. It would be nice to have someone working on the same kit at the same time to bounce ideas off of and share progress with.

Bob

Hi Bob.

I will post pics as I go here. All I have done so far is paint the decks and tops of the turrets XF-63 German Grey. Rather than wait for the deck blue paint I am going to try and achieve the colour I want by spraying the decks with Clear Blue over the grey.. just enough for a blue tinge.

How far in are you to the build?

I have the Eduard PE Super Set and a set of brass barrels for mine as well.

Warren,

IIRC the problem with the deck-blue painted wooden decks was/is that the paint came of quite quickly, at least on the carriers, and I see no reason to assume that the battleships were that much different. IIRC there are colour-images out there that show wooden decks with a definite blueish-hue.

Thanks for that Harm.
I did the decks this morning and here is the result..



I hope this deck fits better than the Saratoga's...

Warren, your decks look good. As far as I can tell from the photos you posted you have the color, if not spot on, very close. One thing I forgot to tell you is that Model Master's Flat Sea Blue is almost a dead ringer for WEM Deck Blue. I have used it in the past when WEM paints were hard to come by and was very satisfied with the result.

Do you use acrylic or enamel paints? I've tried using acrylics to try to get away from all the solvents but I've never been able to get satisfactory results, especially through the airbrush, which I use for 90% of my paint work. I paint nearly exclusively with enamels, with WEM being my "go to" paint, and Model Masters being my second choice. Both airbrush extremely well and WEM particularly brush paints quite well, usually with just a touch of thinner. For thinner I use generic lacquer thinner in the big Wal-Mart cans.

Looks like you have take a somewhat different approach that I have. I assembled the upper and lower hulls (I'm doing a full hull build), then attached the deck. Be advised, this kit is a real pig when it comes to upper to lower hull fit and deck to upper hull kit. I wound up using epoxy to get everything together, then used Bondo to fill the gaps between upper and lower hull and then sanded, primed, sanded, primed, etc., to get the joint to where I wanted it. The decking was also put down with epoxy. So far no problems with getting the joints to hold. Gaps in the deck portions were filled with gap filling CA, as were the gaps in the hull to deck fit.

For painting, I started with the hull, first laying down the anti-corrosion coat on the bottom of the hull. I then masked off and painted the boot topping. Next came the main upper hull color, Navy Blue 5-N. Finally, I masked off the area above the sheer line and shot a coat of Alclad II white primer for my base to make sure the Navy Blue didn't darken down the top coat too much. The final color coat for the forward upper hull above the sheer line is Haze Gray 5-H. I'm pretty pleased with the results. I also did some preliminary painting on the protruding details on the weather deck, shooting Haze Gray, which will be the topsides color for all vertical surfaces under the scheme I'm using, which is Measure 22. Since the kit presents her in her late war fit I figured this late war camo scheme would work. And, I don't really like the look of the kit camo scheme. I feel like the black colors on the superstructure obscure too many nice details I want to stand out.

I'm going to try to attach some photos of the painting progress on the hull. I'm now done with the hull painting except for some minor clean up and shooting a gloss coat to protect it during the remainder of the build.

Here are the pics, if I can get this right:










Plan now is to start building up the weather deck, starting with the excellent Eduard PE set combined with the kit parts. I'll paint as much of the kit parts as I can on the spure and then touch up as needed. Obviously, I'll try to get as much of the main deck PE down before I shoot paint. Once I'm ready to shoo the deck color (WEM Deck Blue) I'll mask where applicable and fire away.

If you want to keep in touch, share photos, ideas, tips, discoveries about the kit, etc., you can e-mail me at [email protected]. Please be sure to put something in the subject line so I'll know it is from you in case my spam filter catches is. Maybe we can help each other out and make this build a little easier, and more fun, for both of us.

Happy modeling,

Bob

Great info Bob. (But that email address does not work)

My fit doesn't seem too bad but we will see.

I use acrylics almost exclusively but I use Model Chrome Silver a lot and their metaliser brass is used on lots of WNW builds. Funny thing is it says airbrush only, but I have no problems brushing it on mostly small area.

I remember when I was young I used Humbrol paints all the time and I used to get headaches after a long brush painting session and now realise it was probably the paint fumes.

The Show Boat will now be waiting until I finish the USS Saratoga. That one is going pretty well and I am just about to fit the rear flight deck. Fit is foul, but it is amazing what claps and masking tape can do.

The sides of the lower deck and hull above the waterline have been painted in the pale grey, Gunze 338 as recommended by Trumpeter. Next will be the darker grey then the black.

I have started building the quad 40 mounts using the Eduard PE set and I have some up with another decision, to use splinter shields or not.. The only picture of a quad mount I have seen on BB55 has no shields so that is the way I will go. Maybe they were installed later in the war but this one is being built as BB55 was mid-war.. I think..

Warren, sounds like you are a little further along than I am at this point. I have the hull painted and am starting on the paint work for the weather deck and 01 deck levels. I've been letting those cure and off gas for a few days before I start sanding to level out the finish on the paint. I've started on the main armament, specifically the 16" turrets, which I'm doing with a mix of Yankee Modelworks resin (mostly the blast bags), Sea Master barrels, Eduard PE and the kit turrets. Hope to have those done and ready in the next few days. I've also done some painting of the 5" turrets on the sprue, as well as some of the other kit parts that can be painted on the sprue, like shields, deck fittings, etc.. I'm debating using the SeaMaster's 5" brass barrels, but I'm not sure if I'll use them or stick with the kit barrels. It strikes me that with all the 5" armament, the brass 5" barrels might get lost in all the other detail and make the work not worth the effort. I am going to try to use the Sea Master's 20mm Oerlikon sets for the secondary AA fit, since if I can get them together I think they will look enough better than the kit parts to make the work worth it.

I'll try to post some pics in the next day or two of my progress to date. I'm splitting my time between North Carolina, Tamiya's Fletcher and Trumperter's 1/32 F4F-4 Wildcat, so no one project is getting major progress, just slow progress across the board.

Love to see some more pics of what you have done to date on North Carolina.

Bob

Have you guys checked out the fit on the hull deck pieces. If i remember correctly when i did this kit, the lower hull and upper hull didn't fit. seems the lower was a bit too thin. Someone cut the spacers in the upper to make it match but that made the deck not fit properly. i used a popsicle stick as a spreader on the lower hull section to achieve a tighter fit.

@ Steve, I haven't got that far yet. If it is too bad I will just build waterline..

@ Robert, no, I think you are further ahead than me. I jumped ahead to do the quads while the paint on the hull dried. The North Carolina is in dry-dock until I get Sara finished then I will go back to her.

I was reading my only reference guide on this ship last night and for its camo scheme it stated that all horizontal surfaces should be deck blue. Looks like Trumpeter read that one as well as that is what the painting instructions show.

Steve, the fit between the upper and lower hulls is atrocious. I solved the problem by using epoxy to bond the upper and lower hulls, then filling the joint with putty (Bondo) and then wet sanding it down, prime, repeat until satisfied. I also found that the fit between the deck sections and the upper hull also left something to be desired. I also used epoxy here, filling the joint with gap filling CA once the epoxy had set and wet sanding smooth. You can see the results, for better or worse, on one of my posts above.

Warren, I'm moving slowly myself, since I'm dividing my limited bench time between North Carolina and Tamiya's Fletcher, as well as a non-ship project, Trumpy's 1/32 F4F-4 Wildcat. I finally got her main and 01 deck levels painted and I've been letting that cure and finish off gassing before I sand to smooth down the paint job. Slowly working on the main turrets, which are a mixture of the kit parts, Yankee Modelworks resin turrets and Eduard's PE set. Slow going, but I think I'm going to like the results. At some point I'm going to have to dry dock Fletcher and focus on The Showboat if I'm going to get her done in any reasonable time.

As far as I can tell from my reference materials, no matter what cammo scheme you use for North Carolina her decks and horizontal surfaces should be deck blue. I'm interpreting that to mean turret tops, etc..

Love to see some more pics of your work on Sara, Warren.

Bob

Warren, I certainly don't want to hijack your thread, but if you don't care I thought I'd post some update pics on my U.S.S. North Carolina. The main deck and 01 deck have been painted and sanded down after a cure of nearly a week. I like the result, which puts me in mind of what a warship in wartime conditions might have looked like, a little on the rough side.

I have also attached a few pictures of another build I have going along with North Carolina, Tamiya's 1/350 U.S.S. Fletcher. As you will see, I've also done her in Measure 22. I have read that she may actually have worn that sceme for a time in '42, and since I like it better than the Measure 12 modified scheme I decided to go with that.

Superstructure on Fletcher is dry fitted, as is the 01 deck on North Carolina. Still have some touch up to do on both ladies. The main deck bulkeads on North Carolina have been glued down. Kind of hard to tell right now, but I have replaced all the hatches with the Eduard PE hatches. A little weathering on down the road should pop out the details a bit better.

I have to say that the Eduard PE sets for both of these kits is fantastic and well worth the money. I'm really pleased with the results on the PE on Fletcher so far. I also have the PE on the mast done, but no photos yet.

Hope you guys enjoy the pictures and I'd love to hear any comments you might have.

Bob

Hi Bob.

Be my guest! The more the merrier I say.

Is Measure 22 basically a solid colour for the superstructure etc? Why I ask is that I am doing the Trumpy scheme and I am painting the side parts before I glue them. Then I shouldn't have to go back and try and brush paint them later.

No progress as I am busy with a WW1 aircraft or two and waiting for news on the Sara from Trumpeter.

Warren, Measure 22 is Navy Blue up to the lowest edge of the hull, then Haze Grey on up. Deck and major horizontal surfaces as Deck Blue. Here is a great site on cammo measures. Even has the cammo patterns for each major ship for different time periods: www.shipcamouflage.com/index.htm

I thought about using the Trumpeter scheme on North Carolina, but I wasn't sure that my skills would let me do justice to it at this point. Plus, I thought that the Trumpeter pattern, which is correct for a large period of her service during World War 2, would hide a little more detail than I wanted. Between North Carolina and Fletcher I'm going through my stock of Haze Grey like there is no tommorow.

Bob

Hi Bob.

I had seen that sight before and its text is very good. Only problem is I would like some good clear photos or diagrams as well..

You may be right about hiding detail with that Trumpeter scheme, MS 32 if I am not mistaken. It would also make painting the ship much easier if I went the othe way..

Cheers
Warren

Carrier decks were stained, not painted, which is why it wore off so badly. Deck blue paint, as used on battelships, wore much better.

Hello again.

I seem to be getting over WNW disease and finally got around to doing a little more on my North Carolina.
Sorry the photos are not the best but I think you get the idea.. The hull sides are painted. I used Trumpeter's call outs and too me they look fine.


Sorry the photos are not the best but I will make sure they are better for the next lot.

Warren, I'm glad to see you back on the Showboat. I've shelved mine until the winter building season, which is rapidly approaching. Just found it too hard to try to work on her during good weather, with all the distractions and other demands on my time. With luck, I'll be back on her by the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm looking forward to your update posts. Looks like you decided to go with Ms 32.

Bob

Hi Bob..

Yep, 32 it is. straight lines are easy to mask..

The Show Boat has come to a grinding halt.. I am at a loss as to how to paint the deck fittings (ammo lockers, vents. splinter shields etc). Do I just paint them all over deck blue, or the sides grey and the top of them deck blue? Or do they have to blend in with the camouflage scheme (Measure 32)?

Help.. although there is no real rush as I have quite a few others I can start..

you paint them the shades of grey colors you use for the sides. only the actual deck the tops of the 16 and 5 inch turrets should be blue