HMS Rodney May 1941

[Greenshirt]

After searching the net and here it seems I cannot find a definite color/camo for Rodney during her fight with Bismarck. In June 1941 she went to Boston for a refit and got a disruptive scheme, but I cannot seem to find a definitive indicator of her color/scheme prior to that. I've got Alan Raven's excellent books on camouflage but the best I can come up with is a couple of possibilities:

1) Overall 507a or 507b.

2) Green, Brown and 507c disruptive pattern. Raven says this was gone by September 1940.

In any case, wooden decks were natural; steel decks were dark grey (507a); Corticene decks were a red brown; turret tops were dark grey.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm building the Tamiya Rodney (I know the fit is wrong as it's an earlier configuration).

Tim

[Phil Reeder]

After searching the net and here it seems I cannot find a definite color/camo for Rodney during her fight with Bismarck. In June 1941 she went to Boston for a refit and got a disruptive scheme, but I cannot seem to find a definitive indicator of her color/scheme prior to that. I've got Alan Raven's excellent books on camouflage but the best I can come up with is a couple of possibilities:

1) Overall 507a or 507b.

2) Green, Brown and 507c disruptive pattern. Raven says this was gone by September 1940.

In any case, wooden decks were natural; steel decks were dark grey (507a); Corticene decks were a red brown; turret tops were dark grey.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm building the Tamiya Rodney (I know the fit is wrong as it's an earlier configuration).

Tim

Hi Tim,

Rodneys colour scheme during the Bismarck action was overall AP507B med/blue grey,with a natural wood main deck ,steel decks I would do AP507A Dark Grey.

Cheers Phil

[Greenshirt]

Phil,

Thanks much. Very helpful.

Tim

[Mike McCabe]

I agree with Phil on that one, overall 507b

Mike

[warreni]

Does anyone have pictures of both sides of the Rodney in her camo scheme? I have received the colours I need now I need a poroper diagram as the Trumpeter one is not even close from what I can gleen.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Warren,

 

Working on it!

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Warren,

 

I've been struggling to find any time lately so haven't been able to work with Gill on digital drawings. Nor unfortunately have I fully scrutinised this. Still, I was at least one of those who highlighted the deficiency in a lot of the colour information in circulation and there's nothing that gets on my wick more than someone tossing in a grenade telling me everything is wrong then disappearing without offering any help as to what might be right - so, I apologise in advance but this is the ultra-quick version. I've only done the starboard side so far. If this is any use I'll do the port side too. Hopefully it gives you a bit of a steer though?

 

Right, firstly why I believe most stuff is incorrect:

There is a surviving colour cinefilm reel taken during Op Pedestal which fortuitously features HMS Rodney from both port and starboard side as well as from the ahead.

 

As you can see, the film is now poor quality and rather washed out, but it does disprove the Trumpeter instructions without needing a second glance, and also thoroughly pans so-called "colourised" photographs such as this one which does the rounds, but to my annoyance:

Clearly this is the figment of someone's imagination. Do not be fooled by it - it's nonsense!

 

Next, there are a couple of impressionist paintings by official war artist Stephen Bone who accompanied several sorties. His paintings are preserved in the National Maritime Museum.

 

Unlike the colourised photographs, Bone was there in person and his renditions are first-hand. Whilst it would be foolish to trust his paintings over obvious tonal information in good quality photographs, whether black and white or colour, the paintings do give a good impression of colour. Combined with the Op Pedestal footage, this seems to point to a 5-colour scheme (which tallies well with simply counting the tones on B&W images) of MS1, MS3, MS4, B6 and 507C.

 

I've simply painted in the panels using my own paints here. I scanned it first but the scanner has reduced the subtle MS shades to grey which is disappointing, thus, I also took a camera phone photograph and annotated the panels. MS1 and 507C should be obvious so I didn't annotate those.

 

CORRECTION: On second thoughts after scanning and uploading, I think the middle flash up the bridge - which I have shown and labelled as MS3 - was actually B6.

 

 

Lastly, if memory serves it was Hataka's RN set you have bought? If so, it's a Snyder & Short copy so you may be interested to know in the adjustments you'll probably want to make to the paints to make the camouflage scheme work:

 

The Snyder & Short MS1,3 and 4 weren't bad in terms of hue but the tones were all off. MS1 will be fine to use as-is, and the 507C is ok but lacking a touch of blue and it's a bit light. You may get away with the 507C unadjusted though because there's no MS4A with it which should look lighter than 507C if present.

 

You may benefit from darkening the MS3 and MS4 though, as there needs to be a bit of tonal contrast between MS4 and 507C, but less contrast between MS3 and MS4. MS4 will be about the same as B6 tonally if all are correct. One of the main issues with Snyder & Short's colours and the reason we moved away from them is that the tones are all screwed up and overlap each other. When trying to work from black and white images it really doesn't help when the model paints don't graduate like the real ones.

 

Their B6 was quite a long way off due to severe yellowing of the binder of the sample they had to match to. It's also much too light (and thus too close to 507C and you won't get the correct contrast between them, same as above). I'd suggest just tossing that and getting something else. The "507B Medium Grey" included in a Snyder & Short copy set is mis-named and was just an emergency mix paint for use without camouflage pattern. It's not correct for Home Fleet ships so you may get some milage out of it by using it as a basis for making a better B6 by mixing it with a light blue. RAF Azure Blue into it might get you close to a 25~30% greyish blue.