USS Enterprise Tamiya 1/700 Paint Job?

1/700 presents some challanges due to 'scale effect."  At 12" from the kit, you are a scale 700 feet away, which washes colors, and color distinctions away--as any photo from that distance will readily show.

At the same time, we are modelers, we are up close and personal with our builds, our exstence with them is far more direct and "close up" than for a casual vewer.

For 2¢, what I have done is to select the blue color for the deck, and a the different color for the wooden flight deck, and the 3rd color for the hull sides.

The deck blue is a very deep blue, if less dark than the "Navy Blue" used on aircraft.  Feldblau, the Luftwaffe uniform color can more n handy here, as can some of the "bluish" panzergrau. (Both of those beng slightly better for the earlier overall "Sea"blue rather than the later "Navy" blue.)

Oh, and since we are on this, note that the hangar deck, and those places sheltered by the flight deck will be in "deck" gray (and there's a fist fight in deciding what that is, and I'm disinclined to joint it).

Perversely, despite the instructions, Big E seems to have never sailed wth white counter-shadng point.  Such is life aroundcapital ships.

f you'd like a bit more depth on ths business, wiki has a reasonably good artcle under "WWII USN Camoflage" with photos and some (small) color samples.

I have a question I am currently building it and is stumped has anyone have troubles with attaching the hull and deck together? Like mine leaves a crack but I haven't cement it yet

Recently built my Academy/MCP kit.

I used lifecolor 20B and 5N from their USN set, found 5N to be a little too dark for 1/700 scale so lightened up a little. 

Tamiya was way too dark when it dried. My best match for 1/700 scale 20B was Colourcoats (WEM) 20-B.  

Would tamiya have similar colours would XF 54/XF 17 work for Navy Blue and Deck Blue?

went through a bunch of places today and can't find any carrying it in Canada

For what it's worth, take a look at the rattle can Rust-oleum, Chalked ultra matte in Coastal Blue. I just finished the restoration of a WW2 battle lantern with that stuff and it looks pretty good for weathered or oxidized 5N. For 1:700 scale, it might just be the ticket.

Since you are up north, the European makers might be easier to come by.  Check with the online stores up there and of course, any local or close by hobby stores to see what is available.

As to lightening, I'd start at about 10 percent of white in the blue and go up from there.

from Canada mate

Colour?   Are you in the U.K.?

Soverign Hobbies,  soverignhobbies.co.uk, sells Colourcoat  paints. They will have the 5N,  20B, and flight deck stains.   I don't have their product numbers handy.   Google should be your friend.   

another issue is that i am from Canada and US to Canada would be quite expensive for shipping.... 

i see, thanks for the info man, would need to start building a bit before knowing what exactly to use, but will bug you again when i get closer to painting! Thanks 

If it was me, I'd go deck blue on the flight deck and call it close enough for who it's for.  That's just me....I'm not a rivet counter and don't build for shows.  I have the Merit CV-6 in 1/350 and that is what I'm going with.

Have heard a couple of members say that the 20B is close enough to the stain.  I might paint the flight deck wood tan first and use the 20B as a very heavy wash to let a little wood show though to simulate wear, but again, just me.

thanks for the reply, how would you go about lightening it? and what about the Norfolk colour how would i use that

alright got you man, so Model Master should have both colours availible, and it should work perfectly on my carrier. One more question in terms of the deck colour would i paint it Deck Blue? or Norfolk as OP threw two colours and i was a bit confused? 

thanks 

Model Master has the 5N in acrylic (#4867), and used to have enamel in 5N and 20B (deck blue).  Don't know if the enamels have been discountinued in the great purge.  Have'nt seen or heard of 20B in acrylic from MM.

From what I have gathered, the deck stain was an approximation of the 20B, for staining the wood deck on the carriers.

Lifecolor has both 5N (UA626) and 20B (UA624) in acrylic, but haven't used either yet, but have some on hand.  IIRC I order the Lifecolor from Scalehobbiest.

Might want to lighten both a little, as you might never find her after painting.  Had a couple of folks say that it might be somewhat dark on a 1/700 model.

thanks for your reply man, this 5N Navy Blue that you are talking about, do you know where i can get this colour from?. Also you mentioned Norfolk deck stain and deck blue  can you specify what you mean there, sorry but i am just a bit confused. 

Thank you 

There a a few manufactures who make the USN colors including a Lifecolor set, but I don't know how accurate they are.

Except for a short time in 1944, the Enterprise spent her time in Measure 21.   This is overall Navy Blue (5-N)..

Hull & superstructure in 5-N.  Flight deck in Deck Stain - probably Norfolk. Steel decks, bridge, gun tubs & galleries in 20B Weather Deck Blue.  

Tamiya acrylic doesn't have an out of the bottle solution.  Old ModelMaster enamel was good, with a number match. Colourcoats is the go-to enamel.  True Color is good. It is an acetone solvent paint.  In acrylics, AK Interactive has a couple USN sets with the colors.  Also Scale Colors run by former FSM editor Jeff Herne 

BTW- there is NO Fed-STD reference for these colors.  They were declared obsolete at the end of the war.  Fed-Std-595 was a product of the mid-to-late 50's