I'm about to start painting my Hobbyboss 1/700 I-400. Its sat sadly forgotten for too long and its about time I finished it.
I'm not sure what colour scheme to go with though. The box recommends hull red on the bottom, blue-grey upper hull and wooden decks. But a search of the net has found photo's of finished models in this scheme, others with the red bottom and only all grey uppers, and to confuse things further all over dark grey.
Very confusing!
Given the alleged nature of the mission on its final voyage, I can't see how a natural wood deck would provide camouflage at sea, so I'm inclined to go with the all over grey uppers. Would I be right in this respect?


Advice is appreciated.
Stephen

Hi Stephen,

Suggested painting:
Lower hull.................................Tamiya XF-9
Upper hull and portions of metal deck......XF-75 Kure Gray
Wood deck.......for an older look..........XF-78
with a dry brushing of wood deck...........XF-72

One photo I have seen of her in dry dock, looks like
she had a black boot but I cannot confirm that this
is totally right.... just my interpretation.

Wash and weather accordingly.

This should get you real close to the way she looked.

Cheers,
Joe

Stephen,

Here is a link that may help:

http://www.operationstormbook.com/i400_images.html

Cheers,
Joe

Thanks.
I'll have to check to see if Humbrol do an equivalent to the grey. They do so many greys there's bound to be something close. HU160 German Red Brown seems to be a similar colour to XF-9 and I've got a couple of tins of browns and beige's that look like wood. I still think wood decks are a little odd as far as camouflage goes, but if that's how the IJN left it thats what I've got to do. I can only assume it was to give the crew a non-slip decking to work when assembling the Sieran's.
That websites interesting. Its a real shame they were scuttled but given the fact that the rising tensions between the west and the USSR I can see why it was done.
The size of them amazes me though, I have a 1/700 Trafalgar-class to be built and its dwarfed by the I-400!

I know that the German u boats with teak decks
were painted with a substance to preserve them.
This product was a dark charcoal grey color almost black.
If the Japanese followed in the same manner, then the
dark charcoal grey may be an option.

As far as the upper hull, Humbrol 106 should be adequate.

Cheers,
Joe

106 looks to be a safe bet.
I do remember reading something a while back about the Yamato and possibly the Musashi having the wood of the decks stained to help with concealment. Not that its possible to hide an 800+ft battleship of course. It does open up some possibilities though. The only thing that could solve it are some good quality contemporary colour photo's.
I'll stick with bare wood just to be on the safe side.