I aksed this over on the flatops campaign thread, but I thought I'd ask you old salts. Does anybody know about how wide the black anti-fouling stripe was on large ships? When I was a kid I always went down to Long Beach naval yard for Navy Open House to tour all the carriers, crusiers, etc. I kind of have in mind it was about six feet wide, but I'm not sure. I'm not looking for exact numbers but was it about a foot, five feet, twenty feet, or what? Also I kind of have a mental image of it being glossy, not flat black. I painted the general area of the stripe on my Yorktown in flat black, but it doesn't really look right. What type do you use?

Roger,

No direct knowledge, but I'll hazzard a couple of guesses. I think you're actually referring to the 'boot topping", a black stripe along the waterline of a ship. It's primary purpose is to keep the gunk (technical term) floating around the harbor from sticking to the side of the ship. My guess is that it is in the 5-6' tall range, since it would be expected to protect the waterline regardless of the ship's trim. Glossy would be a better surface than flat since there are fewer rough spots for stuff to collect in.

I thought that the 'red' coating on the bottom of the hull was actually the 'anti-fouling' material.

Time for the real salts to straighten us out.

I usually go flat on everything. As to width, Most of the time it is scribed on the ships. If not I just eyeball it a bit and lay something out based on if it looks thin or thick in the picture. I think there was a variance on most ships, but someone probably has knowledge of a standard

Another DOH moment. I knew anti-fouling stripe didn't sound right, but for the life of me I couldn't remember boot topping. I'm sure that's the right term for it.

If you're talking about WW2, here's the official poop:

Boot-topping painting. - The boot-topping area on oilers, cargo vessels, and similar craft with a wide variation in service drafts shall extend from a light-load waterline to 6 inches above the full load waterline.

The lower edge of the boot-topping area on other surface vessels shall be the designer's waterline and the upper edge shall be 6 inches above the full-load waterline.

On submarines, the boot-topping shall extend for the waterline at maximum beam to the intersection of the superstructure and the outer hull.

Jeff

Ok Jeff, now you're starting to sound a bit like a sea lawyer. :-) That's all very well and good but how much higer or lower does a ship usually ride in the water?

That's all very well and good but how much higer or lower does a ship usually ride in the water?


Doubt a sea lawyer can answer that one, ya need a Naval Architect or a good Bo's'n.

Rodgers I was going to enlarged my scale drawling of the Yorktown from a scanned picture from a squadron book but the picture cuts off on the line.
I don’t know if it went the whole way to the bottom of the line or not by I enlarged the picture to the size of the model and got at least 1/8 inch.

If I had to guess I would say it should be between 1/8 and 3/16.

I don’t know if this will help you too much but at least it gives you a starting point.

I've decided on 10mm, which by the strangest coincidence just happens to be the width of my Tamiya masking tape.

I have the builder's plans, I can give you the waterline markers (full-load, in ballast) if you need them.

I've been accused of being alot of things, but never a lawyer. I don't know if I should be insulted or not...

Jeff

I've decided on 10mm, which by the strangest coincidence just happens to be the width of my Tamiya masking tape.


Not that we've actually answered your original question, but in 1/700 that's a 22 FOOT tall stripe, even in 1/350 it's 11 FEET. You might want to consider Tamiya's 5mm tape. :-)