iang

Thanks. I've only really seriously researched the Lion class, going through all their ship's logs at TNA and ship's covers at NMM. In the early months of the war, Lion, Queen Mary, and Princess Royal were camouflaged differently. The latter two were most similar as they were both in confusion schemes adopting a dark panel that was the height of the hull. At this time, QM had bizarre camouflage to the funnels. PR did not originally have stripped or camouflage funnels. PR was the only one of the three to appear briefly in overall light grey after the first confusion scheme. In early 1915 all three were in a similar 2nd confusion scheme, though I think only Lion had stripped funnels at this time. I've taken a more casual interest in the other battlecruisers. Indomitable was in a unique Kerr scheme of grey blotches over white/light grey at the end of 1914 beginning of 1915, Inflexible was also in a different Kerr scheme. Indefatigable and Tiger were both in the same confusion scheme as the Lion class in early 1915. New Zealand started off in an almost Identical confusion scheme to Lion's 1st confusion scheme, but without the false bowsprit. According to another Wyllie painting she also ended up in a 2nd confusion scheme, but I've not found a photograph of her in this scheme. Thus far I've not found a camouflaged image of Invincible or Australia, but I haven't searched that hard for images of these two ships.

Deck fitting. More progress. I've spent some time considering whether to use the GPM printed paper deck or to cut a deck from the blank Scaledecks 1/350-1/200 wooden sheet that I have. The advantages of the latter are: 1. It would look better. 2. I would be able to position all the fittings from plans and photographs. The GPM deck has the location of these printed on the deck, and they may not be accurate. The disadvantages are: 1. I would have to join the deck in 2 possibly 3 places given the dimensions of the Scaledecks blank. 2. The plank size looks small for 1/200 scale. 3. Scaledecks in now closed I believe and I have 1/350 projects that I need to utilise the blank for. So for no really positive reason I decided to use the printed paper GPM deck. There is an awkward joint that needs disguising and fingers crossed that the positions of the fittings are accurate. Having thought about adhesive, and experimented with on scrap, I decided to use 3M Photomount spray adhesive, which worked well overall: The joint on the main deck proved a problem of my own making. I rolled the deck with a photo-etch tool and this squeezed out a small amount of adhesive. Disguising the resultant mess took a while. When dry I used AK Weathering Pencils, which I like a lot: I used all the browns and greys and applied them to the entire deck so as to blend in the repair. Not brilliant, but acceptable now : After a couple of coats of Vallejo Premium matt varnish to the deck (hull masked off), it now looks like this: When dry, the deck edge will need trimming with a scalpel by 1mm or so in a few places. A pretty good fit given the method of construction, so I'm pleased with the outcome. Much of the paper deck edge will be hidden by the net shelves, which is probably the next job. I'm going to build all the basic structures before doing any detailing as the hull will need a fair amount of handling.

Replacing all the mouded on plastic details with printed items has made a huge difference.

Thanks for the thought, Jamie - but I'm pretty sure I bought some from you. When I get home tonight I'll check and message you.

The hull is now painted. As previously mentioned, I've spent a good part of the summer researching early-WW1 RN colours in various archives; particularly in relation to the Lion Class. In passing, I've uncovered some surprising material relating to the origins and adoption of Admiralty Light Grey 1:20 (parts black to pure white by weight). I'm writing this up for the Lion Class as a whole (possibly a book, I’m not sure), so this is a précis of that material relating just to Lion August 1914-April 1915. Underwater Hull From the Ship's Cover, Lion was painted in cold Moravian Grey from completion. I don't know what colour grey Moravian Grey was, but I have found a photo of Lion in the Medway floating dry dock (from her Ship's Log, this was very likely 27 September 1912). In this photograph, assume that the upper hull is painted with Admiralty Dark Grey (1:3 black to pure white by weight), and, in comparison, the anti-fouling Moravian Grey is quite light. Above water hull Jellicoe informed the Admiralty that he had ordered battleships of the Battle Fleet to repaint their upper-works light grey on August 20 1914. This was part of a series of messages from Jellicoe regarding the changes in painting of battleships of the Grant Fleet. It is clear from these that the decision making process emanated from Jellicoe and not the Admiralty, though I've yet to find detail of what shaped his views. Various schemes for confusing range finding were also experimented with at this time, including canvass dodgers and stripped funnels and masts. From diary evidence of those serving at this time, it's known that painting the upper works light grey on some ships commenced while the Battle Fleet was returning from a sweep of the North Sea on August 17 1914, and was completed at Scapa Flow on August 19 1914. It transpires that the Light Grey used was 1:20 mix of black and pure white, but the ratio was not specified by weight or volume. Since white lead was significantly denser than lamp black, mixing grey by weight rather than volume produces a much darker shade of grey than if mixed by part to the same ratio. The 1st Battlecruiser Squadron was with the Battle Fleet on this sweep and according to Lion's ship's log, her upper works were painted on August 19 while at Scapa. Jellicoe's next intervention was to move from light upper-works/dark hull to overall Light Grey (1:20 weight/volume not specified). He informed the Admiralty that all battleships were in this scheme on August 31 1914. However, the battlecruisers were at sea for much of late August, and their ships' sides were not painted until early September. In the case of Lion, this was at Rosyth on September 7 1914. The previous painting of the ship’s side was at Spithead on July 17 1914. Before this her sides were painted at Revel, Russia on June 18 and photos taken of the British battlecruisers at this time show them as very dark grey, in contrast with the light grey Russian ships. From this information, I’m confident that at the time of the Heligoland Blight action, British battle cruisers were in a light upper-works/dark hull scheme. The early September painting of Lion’s ships’ sides was not into overall Light Grey, like the battleships of the Grand Fleet, but rather into various confusion schemes based around very dark panels on light grey hulls and range-finding confounding painting of funnels and masts. I have found no Admiralty Orders mandating this scheme (and no reference in Beatty or Jellicoe’s published private papers). Nevertheless, Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, who was in command of 1BS Grand Fleet in 1914, gave evidence to the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors in 1920 that Lion was one or the first ships to have camouflage in the pattern of “a destroyer” on its hull. From photographs, it would appear Lion was painted into two or three different confusion schemes 1914/15: Lion Confusion Scheme 1, September 7- December 11 1914 (probably) Woods captioned the above photograph as HMS Princess Royal in his diary, but it is actually HMS Lion (the starfish on the mainmast is clearly above the level of the third funnel with the mast bracing under the starfish:a distinguishing feature between the sister ships). It shows the ship after Heligoland in a light grey/dark grey pattern to the hull with false bowsprit and light grey superstructure, black masts and funnels painted with a stripped pattern to confound range finding and was probably taken at Invergorden in September 1914.This 1st Confusion Scheme probably lasted until December 11. Lion was repainted at Invergordon on December 11 and 12, prior to this for a few hours at Loch Na Keal on October 24. Neither entries record painting the ship’s sides, but the two days of painting at Invergordon is more indicative of the time required to modify the hull pattern. Lion Confusion Scheme 2, December 11 (probably) –March 1915 This scheme differed from the first confusion scheme in so far as the dark grey hull section was over-painted with light grey above the armour belt, eliminating the false bowsprit and creating a narrow panel of dark grey on the light grey hull. The top of the mainmast is now white, as is the foremast. This is how the ship appeared at Dogger Bank, as can be seen in the photo of Lion on the Tyne undergoing repairs. By this stage, the funnel stripping was less obvious and had probably not been reapplied since August. Lion Confusion Scheme 2 (variant 2), March 1915 – unknown Lion photographed at Invergordon in early 1915 (IWM) Following repairs after Dogger Bank Lion was repainted 3 times, commencing in March 19-23 on the Tyne and again April 1 and April 5 at Invergordon and again on April 21 and 26 at Rosyth. The ship’s side was painted on all three occasions and the funnels on April 26. Lion was photographed at Invergordonn in a confusion scheme similar to the scheme worn at Dogger Bank, but with the dark grey hull panel possibly in a lighter grey than previously and the stripping to the funnels reinstated. Both masts were now white or very light grey (possibly 1/250 mix). From the ship’s logs it is not clear how long this scheme lasted. On April 6 1915 the Admiralty issued a Confidential Interim Order 317 mandating painting RN ships in overall grey based on a 1/20 mix by weight (what was to be termed latter as Admiralty 507B). So it is possible that the April 21-26 repaint at Rosyth was to comply with this Order. I’ve not found a datable photograph that would help resolve this issue, but here are two pieces of indirect evidence that are relevant. First, the next repainting recorded in the ship’s log was on August 30 and after that the ship was refitted on the Tyne for a week commencing November 24 1915, where the dockyard presumably also repainted the ship. The lack of repainting between April 26-August 30 suggests strongly that the ship did not have a light grey hull, as coaling played havoc with the light paintwork. Set against this is the Wyllie painting of Lion and Princess Royal showing light grey ships with a medium grey hull panels, supposedly dated early 1916. This date seems implausible, but it may be that this confusion scheme lasted until the autumn of 1915. Hopefully, I'll find a dateable photograph to resolve the question. Wyllie (1916) NMM Princess Royal with Lion behind Colours The light grey in all three schemes is clearly not 1/20 mix by weight, which was much darker. I have found no official extant painting instructions specifically for 1st BCS. Given the ambiguity surrounding Jellicoe’s instructions, the most likely colour in my opinion is a 1:20 mix by volume, which would produce a very light grey that corresponds with the photographic evidence. The darker panel in schemes 1 and 2 is probably Admiralty 507A Dark Grey (1:3 mix by weight) or possibly 507 Grey (1/8.73), though that seems more likely for the panel in scheme 2 (2nd variant). I decided to model the ship as of September 1914, rather than at Dogger Bank, which had been my previous intention. I couldn’t resist the false bowsprit and stripped funnels.The light grey is a mix of black and white 1:20 by volume using a syringe. I’m not keen on mixes because of the need to touch up, but there really was no other choice. In daylight it looks like a light grey rather than off-white. For the dark grey, I used 112 Tarmac, which I bought in the 1980s. In retrospect, I really should have mixed it from black and white, as the Humbrol 112 paint has a slight blue tinge in some lights. I still might over spray it. For the underwater hull, I used Colourcoats Ocean Grey, which seems to give roughly the right contrast in comparison with the floating dry-dock photo, but I've no idea if this accurately portrays Moravian Grey. This is very much a first coat, as it has to be detailed with underwater torpedo doors, scuttles, hatches, gash pipes, torpedo boom mounting points etc and weathered. Overall, however, I think the 1:20 mix of black to white by volume produces a light grey that matches the photos and Wyllie's painting. Thanks for stopping by.

A fantastic project.It really is looking very good.

This is really looking fantastic.

Your rigging is impressive!

After a summer break away from the bench, I've picked this up again. I had previously experimented with adding 5 and 10 thou plastic card to the hull to represent hull plating. I couldn't get a satisfactory result, so took it off. Instead, I decided to use paint. I masked up the hull with Tamiya tape covering those areas that will be recessed on the hull. The masking is only approximate, but is based upon a study of the close-up photos that I have of the above water hull. The under water hull bow is loosely based on the one photo I have of Lion in floating dry-dock. The rest of the underwater hull is pure guesswork. I make no claims of accuracy here: the objective is to create the impression of plating and break up the (large) area of hull. When painted with the hull colours, I'm hoping for a subtle effect. Plating on the real hull is not very obvious; even in quite close-up photos. And in close-up: I gave the hull 3 coats of Halford primer and after removing the tape this is the result: I haven't sanded this down yet, and there are clearly a few areas that need touching up, but I think this will look OK once the hull is painted. On the starboard side I gave the hull a very light coat of white primer, which shows the pattern better: When this is fully cured, I'll rub it down prior to painting the hull. I'm hoping it will be quite restrained. I think that overdone plating spoils the overall impression of many modern injection moulded ship models. Trumpeter's Hood being one example. While away from the bench this summer, I spent considerable time in the archives (NMM, IWM and TNA) and have made progress of pinning down the hull colours. I'm now 100% certain of the lower hull colour and pretty confident of the upper hull colours. More soon, I hope.

Stuart Lloyd is my pseudonym. Glad you appreciate the book.

I have a photo of 3 pre-war Sea Gladiators ranged on the centre-line of Glorious, taken facing towards the stern. They don't appear to have underwing codes, but it's not possible to be certain. I also have this: I can't see any underwing codes. As Claudio commented, they were probably all produced with codes and then at some point over-painted.

Obviously, many in the hobby will be sad to see their favourite paint disappear, but at some point in your life you realise that time is the thing you are really short of. I can imagine that running a small business like Colourcoats in your "spare time" is a time absorbing black hole. If it's your main source of income it justifies the time commitment, but otherwise..... Life really is too short.

Looking really good.

Yes, should have read more carefully.

Ship in question has casemate 6" guns, so not Repulse or Renown. My guess would be a Queen Elizabeth class BB. Note the Fairey IIF on the catapult.