The Community Creative Colouring Project - Image Thread

[Worktroll]

Okay, folks, post your colour images/details here!

Now all the following images come from:
The Illustrated Guide to Cruisers
Bernard Ireland
Published by Hermes House, an imprint of Anness Publishing Ltd, 2008

Thanks, Bernard - it's a ripper source!

(Apologies - my flatbed scanner seems to have committed suicide, so these are photos taken, at an angle to stop the flash glare obscuring all the image)

First up, Her Majesty's Royal Navy


HMS Good Hope, commissioned 1901


HMS Kent, commissioned 1903


HMS King Edward VII, also 1903

As paintings, they're probably very reliable colour sources. The red underwater, white waterline stripe, black hull, white upperworks and buff funnels are very consistent. But then I get this:


HMS Medea, commissioned 1889. As a colourised postcard or photograph one has to be suspicious, but this older ship appears to have either a white or light grey hull, with black bridge and funnels. Also notice the massive gold scrollworks surrounding the ship's crest on the bow. Anyone out there able to shed some light on this?

[Worktroll]

The Americans get their fair share of face-time too ...


USS Atlanta, commissioned 1886.


USS Maine (the name rings a bell for some reason), commissioned 1889.


USS Montgomery, commissioned 1894


USS San Diego, commissioned 1901


USS Tennessee, commissioned 1906

More or less constants are: white hull, white turrets, buff upperworks, lots of gold scrollwork around the bow crest. The Montgomery appears to have dark grey or black upperworks and funnels, but it's a colourised photo, and potentially suspect. The Maine also shows a buff underwater hull; of the others, only the Tennessee seems to hint at a grey underwater hull. Who can shed more light on this? Is it a Pacific/Atlantic fleet thing?

[Tonbo Karasu]

HMS Medea, commissioned 1889. As a colourised postcard or photograph one has to be suspicious, but this older ship appears to have either a white or light grey hull, with black bridge and funnels. Also notice the massive gold scrollworks surrounding the ship's crest on the bow. Anyone out there able to shed some light on this?

A quick look at HMS Medea in Wikipedea gets a link to the Marathon-class page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_class_cruiser), which has a chromolithograph of a sister ship, with a white hull, red or buff below the water and buff funnels and masts.  Oh, yes.  And that gold scrollwork.  Maybe an older colourscheme, or one restricted to lower-rate ships?

[Tonbo Karasu]

Would you believe, I've found the colourscheme of a Peruvian Ironclad.  Latter quarter of 19th Century, so a bit earlier than ideal, but it gives ideas.



The painting is by a Peruvian artist, Saldivar, and the original is in the Naval Museum of Peru.

Found here: http://members.multimania.co.uk/Juan39/PERUVIAN_MARITIME_CAMPAIGNS.html, which has so much more.

[Worktroll]

Excellent! Just the sort of thing I was hoping to see.

More from "Cruisers" in a few hours as I wrestle with the scanner.

[Worktroll]

Okay, let's see what we have on the Japanese Imperial Navy ... a bit of a mixed bag. (sorry, scanner still not cooperating).


The Naniwa, commissioned 1885, in green hull & upperworks, with buff funnels

The British-built Asama, commissioned in 1889 and a veteran of mundane Tsushima, with red underwater, white hull & upperworks, and possibly black-tipped funnels


This painting of the Idzumo (sometimes listed as Izumo), may show a more accurate rendition than the colourisation of the Asama's picture. Red underwater, light grey hull, white upperworks, light grey funnels.


This photo of the Tsukuba could cut either way - the funnels are definitely light grey, and it seems safe to say white upperworks, but the hull could be light grey or white as far as this image goes.

And for our French friends, this image of their Joanne d'Arc, commissioned 1903 - if this was standard French livery for the period, then had there been a real war friendly fire would have been a real problem!

[Istal Devalis]

For American ships, The Naval History and HeritageCommand Website has some nice colored photos and paintings. (As well as good old black and white)  Sorry for the size of these. I'll crop them smaller and rehost them if they're too big.

Take this absolutely gorgeous painting of the USS Iowa for example.


And here's the US North Atlantic Squadron at anchor pre-Spanish American war.


Destroyer flotilla en route to China

[Worktroll]

Thanks, Istal!

I can't show comparable ship pictures, but I have got some text and diagrams to throw at you.

Okay, here’s some on the Imperial High Seas Fleet, taken from here: http://german-navy.tripod.com/sms_paint-overview.htm

It’s officially acknowledged that both, the Imperial High Seas Fleet (during WW1) and the Kriegsmarine (during WW2), were using the same colour schemes based on order of Apr-15-1896. So we can refer to a ‘Colour-Card' used by the Kriegsmarine-Shipyard Wilhelmshaven in 1944

...

Heavy units of the German Navy were painted in a pattern adopted in 1896, referred to in Gröner's "German Warships" as "Colour Scheme No. 9". Used by most ships in home waters, it was based on the use of increasingly lighter shades of grey as you climbed from the waterline to the superstructure, with the hull below the waterline red-brown:

Details of pre-WW1 Austro-Hungarian naval paintschemes from here: http://www.gwpda.org/naval/s1100000.htm

From 1900/06 to 1914
Hulls, superstructures, all exterior visible parts like vents, masts, cranes, boats etc. in dark green. After the then CinC this was nicknamed 'Montecuccolin'.
Waterline pink, submerged hull with green poison color.

From February 1914
As it was assumed that the fleet will fight on the open sea the dark green color, supposed to hide the ships operating under the coast, a new bluish light gray color scheme was adopted and first applied on the RADETZKY and the SAÏDA from her launching day on. On 23 December 1913 this scheme was adopted for the fleet and nicknamed 'Hausian' after the then CinC. In 1915 the pink waterline, which had a too big contrast to the hull was changed to a dark gray waterline.

Okay, here’s a great collection of observations made by a Royal Navy officer at a gathering of vessels from many countries in Melbourne, Australia in 1902, from here:  http://www.gwpda.org/naval/s0700000.htm

In Melbourne. Russian cruiser (GROMOBOI), black underwater, white, or very pale grey hull and upper-works, red ventilators, yellow funnels with black tops; US (BROOKLYN), black underwater, white or very pale grey hull to the level of the lowest upper-deck, everything above that pale brown; German cruiser (HANSA), black underwater, white hull, above that dull yellow; German corvette, red underwater; Dutch cruiser, red underwater, white hull, yellow ventilators and funnels with black top; Australian "Cerebos"(?) had brown funnel on British "ordinary"; Australian "Protector", "ordinary" but lower upper-works light grey and ventilators' interiors red.

Portuguese warship (SAN GABRIEL) and Spanish warship (INFANTA ISABELA)in Gibraltar much the same as British "ordinary". Portuguese gunboat in Cape Verde, black hull, white water-line, black-topped buff funnel

French cruiser (DE ESTREES)in St Lawrence, all white, with green underwater and black tops to funnels.

For reference, the “ordinary” referred to is red up to the water-line, then a white line, the "black" hulls look more like very dark blue, a white line just below the top of the hull, white upper-works,  buff funnels and ventilators, brown masts. The article also refers to “war paint” -  red up to the water-line, black hull and the rest dark grey – being used in 1902 also. Presumably this was superceded by the standard charcoal “battleship” grey later.

And (from the same source) comes this wonderful snippet:

Because of the French practice of making defaulters serve out punishment by hard labour, it was common for some turrets on major ships to appear in a shade of 'Bronze brown. This was achieved by having the defaulters scrub the outside of those particular turrets in used cooking oil left over from the gallery. This can be seen in black and white photographs, where some turrets appear very much darker than the rest. Which turrets this was done to varied from ship to ship.

WTF??

"Captain, armoured sky cruiser high on the larboard bow."

"Can you make out what ensign she's flying?"

"No, but ... smells like ... fry-up?"

"Aha! Must be French with a bad crew!"

W

[Tonbo Karasu]

Got another one for you.  Dutch, as seen on the Ramship Scorpion below:  Black hull, with a horizontal red line above the waterline, buff uppers, black funnel.  It appears to have been in service from 1868 to 1906.



Image found on this blog:
http://21centurymod.blogspot.com/2008/11/soundbites-het-rammende-ramschip.html

Also on the dutch wiki, the Buffalo:

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zr._Ms._Buffel

[Tonbo Karasu]

HMS Medea, commissioned 1889. As a colourised postcard or photograph one has to be suspicious, but this older ship appears to have either a white or light grey hull, with black bridge and funnels. Also notice the massive gold scrollworks surrounding the ship's crest on the bow. Anyone out there able to shed some light on this?

According to the painting guides from the War Times Journal, British ships often had the hull painted white instead of black for tropical service.  Might make sense of this apparent difference.

[Istal Devalis]

I've read that recently too.  Apparently it was to help keep the inside from getting to hot.

[Toolian]

I've read that recently too.  Apparently it was to help keep the inside from getting to hot.

Yup, darker colors get hotter.

Ever wonder why football teams that play in the south in hot weather wear their visitor jerseys at home?

That's why.

In a 2001 game between the Oak Raiders and AZ Cardinal, the Raiders black Jersey was 8 degrees hotter than the Cardinals white jersey.

When playing in a game that is 97*, those few degrees count.

Jerseys do not have the same properties as steel, but gives you an idea how the color of an object can affect the temperature. Especial in extreme conditions.

Same thing occurs with cars, the state of California wanted to put a tax for owning a black vehicle.

Their logic -

Black vehicles get hotter = hotter means more use of A.C. = More A.C. means increase in rate of global warming.

[ColBosch]

I'm not going to post the pictures here, but check out THIS source for WWI American Dazzle camoflauge. Amazing stuff!

http://www.risd.edu/dazzle/

[trboturtle]

Let me throw this out -- Do you want to paint your Lev so it can be seen for miles? On the sea is one thing -- but in the air, a Lev can be seen at nearly every angle (Above, below and everywhere in between)

A thought...

Craig

[DevilDogMarine]

These are really useful.

USS Maine (the name rings a bell for some reason), commissioned 1889.

Blew up in Havana Harbor, start of Spanish-American War.