Hello Everyone,

I am going to start building Dragon's 1/350 Z39 soon and I had just one question.

What color was the ship painted during her service in Germany? The instructions call for a mix of White & Black at a 65/35mixture and when I tried it for a test, it looked awful.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

I am assuming that you are referring to hull and superstructure.

Try any of these and I think you will be OK

Vallejo 990
Model Master 1728
Tamiya XF19
Humbrol 127

These are the color call outs for the Trumpeter Z Boats. I think Simon is currently using XF19 on his Norway Z, so you can look in on that thread and see how very good it looks

Chuck has the right of it,

One other thing, the late war the Z39 had the sides of the raised deck the torpedo tubes were mounted on painted dark grey, and maybe even the TT's as well, although I haven't seen any photographic evidence of that.

Cheers

Si

Look at Navsource Simon. Z39 is under the destroyer listing as USS Z-39 DD939. The pictures taken of her at the South Boston Annex do appear to have those sides you spoke of painted a dark er gray, as well as the torpedo tubes.

Should also add that the Charlestown (Boston) Navy Yard is now a national park. I contacted the historian there several years ago with questions about Dry Dock 4 in the South Boston annex, and part of his e-mail back to me featured Z39 in DD#4. I would bet if asked he could give you chapter and verse about how Z39 was painted.