1/200 USS Curtis Wilbur Arleigh Burke Class Paint Issue

HI!

         Having been stationed on Grey Ships ( U.S.N.) I would say "Ghost grey" is okay for a Pristine Ship, Fresh out of the yard. The differences in greys depend on where and when the ships were painted and or repainted.When We got a re-paint after arriving in Hong Kong(We had lost sheets of paint in the storm we went through) And although "Light Grey" it was Darker than original.

         It's very similar to the I.J.N.. You can tell them apart(Cruisers and Destroyers, By their paint(KURE ShipYard and Arsenal) etc. Different stations paint what they are told.It just seems that everyone, while on the same page, Actually aren't, based on Pigments available in their area! 

wadams

Hey Fellow Modelers

I have the new 1/200 scale USS Curtis Wilbur - Areligh Class Model

Since all they have is a painting diagram, I have no idea as to the width of the Boot Topping Black band. Since there is not a hint as to where it goes and the width, as it leaves me guessing.

It also shows a mix for the main gray color of the ship. Would a light ghost grey be inline of the color used??

Thanks

Warren

 

The Fed Std specification for US Navy Modern Haze Gray is 26370 (semi-gloss in 1:1 while matt looks better in scale).    Go to your favorite hobby paint selection software to find a match.    Old Testors ModelMaster (now OOP) Neutral Gray was a match to x6270.   Sovereign Colourcoat enamels offers a USN Modern Haze Gray while Scale Color offers a acrylic Modern Haze.

Of note; WWII USN Haze Gray is not the same as Modern Haze,   The former has a purple-blue tint while the latter is neutral

The Navsource photo archive can help.   There is anice stern shot of the WILBUR in drydock; the lower edge of the boot stripe is at the 18' 6" draft mark (waterline); the upper edge is at 22'.   Had to look at a few other ships to get a good drydock bow shot.  JOHN PAUL JONES has the lower edge at the 18' 6" draft mark with the upper edge at the 23' draft mark.  The boot stripe at the stern is 3' 6" wide and the bow is 4' 6".  

CG Bob

18' 6" draft mark (waterline); the upper edge is at 22'.

Excellent research there.

To OP:  Note that the strip is not a consistent 18" wide.  It runs from the waterline elevations of 18.5' to 22' where the hull slopes or curves between those two elevations, the strip can be significantly wider that 18"

This is why many "how-to" recommend having the hull be level to her water line over some flat surface like a table or bench.  You then set a pencil or scribe at the bottom extent and draw that line right around the hull, and repeat for the upper extent.

This gets finicky, as six inches--the height of USN draft marks is 0.017" at 1/350 scale (0.435mm) which is not that much more than 1/64 inch.

OP may have noticed, too, that USN ships use Deck Gray for their horizontal surfaces.  What model color best replicates that stirs debate.  A person can advocate for colors as diverse as Dark Gull Gray or Gunship Gray (most "Panzer Grays" scan a touch too blue).

In addition, USN uses a special coating on flight decks.  One of the best descriptions of the color is "asphalt"--so any hue from near black to very dark gray with brown tones (but it should be noticebly darker than the Deck Gray.

As TankerBuilder points out, when new the paint is often a starker color than after 3-4 weeks' sun exposure.  To further confuse things, a Burke will have 40-60 personnel onboard whose only job is to maintain topside paint, so there will be areas of fresher paint over older, which, until the next Yard period, gives a patchwork sort of appearance that's very hard to model at small scale.

Many of the Burkes will seem to have a darker hull than topsides in some photos and the reverse in others, so a person wants to use several refernce photos in selecting a color before going to specific ship photos to look for any unique applications of those colors.