Painting the Trumpter Yorktown

Several options. 1 - Check out any hobby shop within reach for Testor's acrylics. That firm recently introduced a series of WWII USN ship colors. They don't seem to be on every dealer's rack, but the better shops have them - and they're certainly available through mail order. 2 - The Polyscale line also has a range of USN ship colors that a reachable hobby shop might carry. 3 - The Model Shipways paint line has them. Few hobby shops seem to carry that range, but it's available by mail order from Model Expo (web address: <www.modelexpoonline.com>). 4 - The Floating Drydock carries several lines of paints that contain the colors you need. (They also have a website, but I don't have it at my fingertips; a search engine should find it.) 5 - The Floating Drydock also sells a series of color chips that will let you mix the paints yourself, in whatever brand you like best.

I personally have always had reservations about trying to match "accurate" colors too closely - especially on relatively small-scale ships. (By "relatively small" I mean smaller than, say, 1/96. Those enormous museum models play by different rules.) Several factors are at work on the human eye when it judges whether a color is "right" or not. One is the notorious "scale effect" - the phenomenon that makes a given color look different on a model than on a prototype. (I've read several analyses of the "scale effect" that try to reduce it to some simple formula. None of those analyses has convinced me.) The other, enormous factor is weathering. A huge mass of metal that's exposed to wind, sunlight, and saltwater 24 hours a day, and has several thousand human beings (not to mention a hundred airplanes) stomping on it constantly, doesn't retain its original color for long.

My suggestion is to look at all the good color photos and paintings you can find, and paint the model the way it looks right to your eye. Yours is as good as anybody else's.

One little point that I picked up from my late father, who was in the Navy in the Pacific Theater. Any WWII Navy vet will tell you he spent much of his wartime career chipping, priming, and repainting his ship. (The exception was the exterior of the hull, which generally was off-limits while the ship was under way.) The primer used on USN warships during the war was a sickly, slightly greenish pale yellow. A really authentic model of such a vessel will have lots of tiny spots of yellow on it, where the hands have finished priming but haven't yet applied the finish coat. I've done several models that way, and they always get smiles from veterans.

Hope this helps a little.

Thanks for the help and great advise. Especially on the primer. Most model ships I've seen represent the rust quite well. Never saw one with primer spots. This is my first ship that is not a Tamiya kit. I guess I got spoiled!

George

Also try John Snyder at white ensign models in the UK they do a colourcoats range that are developed from original paint chips E mail John at <johnsnyder@onetel.net.uk
Hope this is of help
Nick

The Testors paints referred to above are the Model Master Marine Acrylics. They are great. If you can't find them locally, you can order from the Testors web site (also tells you the thinning ratio). According to the "Warship Data No 5 Yorktown" it 's camo was Measure 33, Design 10A. So you need Light Grey (5-L), Ocean Grey (5-O), and Navy Blue (5-N) for the camo, and Deck Blue (20-B) for horizontal surfaces and Blue Deck Stain (No. 21) for the flight deck. All are available in Marine Acrylics. I used Antifouling Red for the hull bottom as well.

Hope this helps.

Chris