HMS Agamemnon Colours

[Martian]

I have the Hobby Boss kit of HMS Agamemnon and have decided to build her as she appeared in May1916 at the time she shot down Zeppelin LZ55 (LZ85) over Salonika and display her alongside the Takom P Class Zeppelin model and a section of fabric I have from the airship. Such fragmentary references as I do have show that she was camouflaged at this time, presumably for her role in the Dardanelles campaign. Does anyone have a reference that shows the scheme and what would be the best acrylic paints to use? It looks like the hairy will be needed. 

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Martian 👽

[europapete]

hhmmmm........you might want to contact Jamie at Sovriegn Hobbies on that one. 

[beefy66]

14 hours ago, europapete said:

hhmmmm........you might want to contact Jamie at Sovriegn Hobbies on that one. 

 

Think Jamie is on holiday at the minute

 

Martian I have the RA Burt books so will have a look later when I get home but think you will need a dark Grey and a Light Grey

I did see a BLOG on the MSW site from a faella called Simon Heathwood and he built a very good example of her will also try and find that link for you.

 

Stay Safe

beefy

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Beefy's right - we've been closed for a while as my wife needed surgery and I've been caring for her during her recovery, doing the day job and looking after the girls during the school holidays so the shop got kicked into the long grass. Gill's much better now so we plan to reopen tomorrow.

 

It would most likely have been painted in original Admiralty Pattern 507 family paints. Neutral greys then made exclusively from black and white pigment, linseed oil, thinner and dryers. Horizontal metal surfaces were usually painted the same paint as the sides except walkways which were laid with Corticene, a brand of linoleum type stuff.

 

It doesn't appear in photos I have access to to have been light grey. Indeed it looks dark with the photos exposed to the point of the sea looking white. This to me suggests the rather dark 507 from commissioning until some time after 1907 when the even darker 507A was introduced.

 

I do note you need acrylics which is fine. I can't help with a specific recommendation there, but the grey used by the RN in this era really was very dark indeed and most modellers choose something much, much too light ostensibly to show off more detail but it gives a drastically different impression than the imposing mass the originals would have been.

 

[Martian]

Thanks Jamie, I will try and scan the picture in question. It is possible I suppose that patches of a lighter grey were painted over the original dark grey of the ship? Being colour blind, I like the fact that the colours were mixed from black and white paints. It gives me a fighting chance of mixing up something myself.

 

Martian 👽

[Our Ned]

"... the picture in question." - this one perhaps: https://www.worldnavalships.com/ship_photo.php?ProdID=114736?

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

8 minutes ago, Our Ned said:

"... the picture in question." - this one perhaps: https://www.worldnavalships.com/ship_photo.php?ProdID=114736?

 

That one could potentially be a can of worms, as there was a period in 1915 where chaos did reign supreme. A suggestion of disruptive camouflage using various colours was made to the Admiralty who promptly issued the preliminary idea out to the fleet who followed the extremely vague order about as consistently as you'd expect. There were soon complaints that RN crews couldn't tell who anyone else was nor whether friend nor foe. It didn't last all that long for obvious reasons, and by 1916 the bigger ships were all back to grey again.

 

There were some remarks I've seen in early WWII documents that the linseed oil dark greys tended to darken in service. Whether this was from dirt or some photochemical process I'm not sure. The remark was along the lines of "If the paint always darkens, why not lighten it so that it darkens to the shade we wanted all along?". I do not believe anything came of that, but I mention it because I wouldn't at all be surprised to see some tonal variations on a ship that has had some time since a full repaint and has had touch-ups or partial repaints since.

[Martian]

1 hour ago, Our Ned said:

"... the picture in question." - this one perhaps: https://www.worldnavalships.com/ship_photo.php?ProdID=114736?

No but it's better than the one I have which is of Agamemnon lying portside to at Malta. I'm getting a feel for how she probably looked at the time she shot down the Zeppelin over Salonika.

 

Martian 👽