Hi guys,
I thought I'd post a couple of in progress pics of Revell's 1/400 oiltanker. I couldn't find any colour references but I found a pic of an assault ship so decided to use similar colouring. The kit is painted in it's base colour of a dark grey. The deck fittings and parts of the superstructure will be painted in light grey.




Here's a closeup of the railings I pinched from another kit to replace the solid molded ones. I didn't have enough to do them all so did the ones around the main deck, the original type can be seen on the walkway above the new ones.

Nice one Martin, should be a great opportunity to do some weathering. Oil Tankers are a dirty lot. Just one question, where do you land the airplanes ? Just kidding, I really like your ship building efforts.

http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/navyfacts/blfleetoilers.htm
http://www.msc.navy.mil/inventory/inventory.asp?var=FleetReplenishmentOilership

Already thought of that Chuck, I'm planning a dio based on this pic.


Thanks for the links Matt, but I need pics or info for WW2 pacific theatre. From the above pic I think the oiler was basically one colour, except the lower half of the hull which was black, and as Chuck says they "are a dirty Lot" so I will be slapping on plenty of washes.

Outstanding, Martin, leave it to you to be on top of that one. The carrier will be the Illustrious, of course?

Chuck the carrier is the Victorious (of the Illustrious class), she was "lent" to the US for six months in 1943 when the US navy was short of cariers, and served in the pacific in company with the Saratoga. The British aircraft were given US style star markings and as the Victorious had a more experienced fighter direction team the carriers' aircraft frequently crossdecked, the Victorious taking aboard most of the fighters.
Later in the war the US reciprocated by assigning the Saratoga to serve with the British fleet for some time. My idea to do a dio based on the photo came about as the Illustrious class carrier has been re released by Heller in 1/400 scale and Revell have the oiltanker in the same scale.

I did not know that. I was aware of our Wasp being in the Atlantic along with a Massachusettes class BB, but never knew that the Brits sent one of their carriers to help us until all those Essex class started showing up. Thanks for the tidbit !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A couple of pics of the weathering on this one. I have applied a wash of black, then drybrushed with light grey. I have also added some rust to the hull sides.
I will be doing another wash in certain deck areas using dark grey with a bit of brown added, a bit more dry brushing and then run some dilute grey shades down the hull sides to make it look streaked and tone down the rust. After that it's on to the rigging.

Actually, that oiler in the photo is wearing Measure 12 camouflage, so the dark band on the lower hull is not black, but rather is 5-N Navy Blue. The color above that is 5-H Haze Gray, and the decks and horizontal surfaces are Deck Blue 20-B.

You'll find all those colors available in our Colourcoats enamels. Incidentally, Victorious was repainted in Measure 21 (overall 5-N Navy Blue) during her service with the US Pacific Fleet (though she probably retained her RN dark grey flight deck), and was referred to as "USS Robin".

Cheers,
John Snyder
White Ensign Models
http://WhiteEnsignModels.com

Thanks for the info John. I guess that puts paid to this one.
Back to the drawing board............