dickrd

It is never going to be a good time to mention this but for those with an interest in the colour of the lower hull of the KGV Class battleship HMS Prince of Wales, I have consulted the Ships’ Covers for the KGV Class held by the NMM. A note states that MacArthur’s composition was designated to be used on the bottom of HMS Prince of Wales. MacArthur’s anti fouling composition came in black or grey. The lower hull of HMS Prince of Wales is visible in photos of her in drydock after the Bismarck action and when sinking. These show that her lower hull was lighter than (the black of) her boot topping indicating that her bottom was grey. The shades of grey (and red) anti fouling compositions used by the RN in WW2 varied according to the different manufacturers. Photos seem to show that MacArthur’s grey anti fouling might have been very slightly lighter than Home Fleet grey.

As it's a fairly easy fix I will risk mentioning this: Daring was in the Home Fleet's 3rd DF when sunk. They did not wear any funnel flotilla bands then.

Not Wright. Starling wore the pattern scheme in early 1943 - see IWM photo A15582. Raven is semi-right. But Starling was in overall light grey much earlier than he thought, by August 1943 in fact- see IWM photo A18961. She continued to wear this overall light grey scheme scheme through 1944.

Yes, the uppermost photo shows HMS Bramham. It is wrongly identified as HMS Ledbury in many places.

Sorry, I have no documentation re Rodney's anti fouling. Photos show that it was significantly lighter than the boot topping so black can be ruled out.

Just to highlight that the shade of the grey anti fouling (AF) compositions for ships’ bottoms of the different manufacturers was almost certainly different. Hood had Peacock & Buchan’s AF and from the very few photos available their product seems to have had quite a dark tone, probably slightly darker than Home Fleet Grey (HFG). KGV had Moravia and the tone of their grey AF appears to have been slightly lighter than HFG. Jamie @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies has faithfully tried to show this in the illustrations on the Sovereign Hobbies website and has suggestions for possible model paints to use to replicate them. In time I hope to be able to form an opinion re the other manufacturers' greys.

I am that Richard Dennis!

Just checking: you are going to paint that bottom grey (not red) this time I hope!

Hmm. Re IWM A8536, if there had been an Oerlikon immediately aft of that hatch at the time that photo was taken then I think that despite the "people" we would still have seen its barrel pointing vertically upwards like the others and also bits of its curved safety firing rail: Do we know when Rear Admiral Brind left KGV ie can we date A 8536 within April? I see now that KGV was at Rosyth 3-5 April so that is another occasion when the extra tub could have been removed after the March 1942 USN aerial photos at Scapa. But I'm beginning to wonder now if the second of the March 1942 USN images I originally posted (80-G-464698, the angle you had not seen before) has misled me and there were only ever 6 Oerlikons on the quarterdeck:

Yes, I think that there was plenty of room for a third tub there, nuzzled between the hatch and the pair of side-by-side tubs. This is the same location on DoY: Obviously by the time of your 1943 picture it had been removed: Looking at my photos I think it was gone by the summer of 1942 and so was perhaps removed during the May 1942 repairs/refit. And checking the October 1942 Admiralty armament return seems to confirm this reduction as KGV is recorded then as having only 17 Oerlikons!

507A. Also, and with all due respect to the Airfix Magazine, there were quite a number of differences between a D Class bridge and an H Class bridge, most notably the height:

If when sunk, overall Home Fleet grey most likely.

Although a few years later, the essential colours of the shipyard buildings and surfaces near the fitting out basin (at the bottom of the photos) will not have changed much: See also: John Brown Shipyard on the Clyde, Glasgow, Scotland (1926) - YouTube Visit to a Shipbuilding Yard (1951) | BFI National Archive - YouTube John Brown's Shipyard (1971) - YouTube

The contemporary Admiralty armament return lists 18 Oerlikons in April 1942. I think you will be able to reach that number with 7 (not 5) on the quarterdeck. The aft-most one seems to have been in the old semi-circular zareba where the UP rocket launcher used to be.