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Showing results for tags 'Bronze Grey'.
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Evening all, With some Royal Navy aircraft carriers being released recently, I wanted to learn more about what colour the flight decks were. The Asian company instructions recommend dark greys, whilst Airfix recommended Humbrol 30 which was more a forest green. Thanks to some contacts I have made through another forum, I have been able to draw upon the investigative skills of some methodical folks who have obtained a wealth of documentation from various archives detailing which colours the Royal Navy were to use and how they were to be made aboard the ship or in the dockyards. From 1933 until non-slip paints were made available in a wide range of colours in mid-1941ish, the Admiralty prescribed AP631 Bronze Grey for aircraft carrier flight decks. Armed with copies of the relevant Admiralty Fleet Orders, and extracts from the Rate Book of Naval Stores from various years courtesy of my new friends, I had the formula to make the original oil paint from a list of base ingredients and imperial units. With the exception of white flake lead pigment, which is not required for AP631 in particular, all original pigments and liquids are still available commercially. Bronze Grey requires Zinc white, yellow ochre, black, white spirit, boiled linseed oil and terebine dryers to make. I didn't want a CWT of paint so the liquids were corrected for density and converted to mass. All masses were converted to metric and scaled down in proportion. There's a little more to it than just that though - the Admiralty didn't want powdered pigments aboard ships and having made up some paints I can see why. Instead, the base colours were to be mixed with linseed oil to form a stiff paste which could be canned and stored. It is these pastes which are mixed by weight to make a final colour in accordance with Rate Book recipes. The black was different, that was supplied as a ready-to-use oil paint, which I had to make from scratch. Many supporting documents had to be sourced to determine the attributes of the oil pastes. Fast forward to now, and I have what I am confident is a good representation of AP631 Bronze Grey. What's pleasantly surprising, although it shouldn't be, is that this stuff made up into what anyone would recognise as a proper paint! Using the sample we have now introduced another model enamel to the rest of our colour range.
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