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Hull Red?


Tomathee

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I bought some Vallejo Hull Red for the bottom of the USS Arizona model I'm working on, I added some flow improver and thinned it, but trying it out seems far too dark, well on the way to brown. I can't believe that is correct, based on my idea of what it would look like, the colour of the instructions and other build threads of similar. So on to the stupid question, do I simply add in some white until I get the lighter shade I want? The untrained Picasso in me is saying that might turn it pink but I thought I'd check before wasting an evening wondering why I wasn't getting a normal red shade for my efforts.

 

Thanks

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Every nation had its own anti-fouling red colour. Arizona being an American ship most likely had a formulation similar to the fairly ubiquitous (to the US Navy) Norfolk 65A colour which was almost pinkish in appearance, but rather dark.

 

US14_1024x1024.jpg?v=1513677343

 

Most model paints claiming to be "Hull Red" are more or less copies of the well-known Japanese brands' "Hull Reds". With the Japanese being almost entirely focused on their extremely healthy home market, they mean Imperial Japanese Navy anti-fouling red and don't pay heed to other nationalities. The IJN's "hull red" looked more like this:

IJN12rgb_1024x1024.jpg?v=1509196341

 

Whilst the Kriegsmarine used a dirty brown RAL colour - which is what you will end up similar to if you just add white to a Japanese-esque anti-fouling red:

KM04rgb_1024x1024.jpg?v=1485617906

 

and the Royal Navy's looking like this:

RN19rgb_1024x1024.jpg?v=1492346039

 

 

Of course lots of modellers seem to favour a sort of Post Box red despite no ships to my knowledge ever having used anything like that. I think it's a hangover from the 1960s when, like Spitfires in Humbrol 30, all ships just got painted bright red and light grey.

 

 

If you do want to use the stuff you have, you might be better adding light blue than white. That will kill the green off that's making it brownish, but it will also drag the redness down towards grey so you may need to add some bright red too to strengthen it. Or, just buy something matched to Norfolk 65A and be done with it.

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