HMS Shropshire colours

[thommo]

My nephew wants to build the WW2 version of HMS Shropshire which his grandfather (my father) served on.  We are pondering colours.  It was a British ship gifted to the Australian Navy.

 

A little research suggests the pre-WW2 camo on the hull was replaced by a single light grey - possibly close to Storm Grey in the new SMS paint range (he's keen to use these airbrush ready SMS paints).  Other research says it might be what they called 507C.

 

No idea about the colour of any other areas (deck, guns, bridge etc).

 

Any clues would be much appreciated.  Cheers.

[dickrd]

Shropshire wore a number of different paint schemes during her WW2 RN service and then more again whilst with the RAN. If you can say when you are interested in we may be able to help. (Or a photo perhaps of the scheme you like the look of? )

[thommo]

On 12/24/2023 at 6:08 PM, dickrd said:

Shropshire wore a number of different paint schemes during her WW2 RN service and then more again whilst with the RAN. If you can say when you are interested in we may be able to help. (Or a photo perhaps of the scheme you like the look of? )

 

We think 1944 with the RAN.

[dickrd]

On 12/25/2023 at 8:54 AM, thommo said:

 

We think 1944 with the RAN.

Well you choose an interesting time!

 

From the start of the year until June she was in ‘Chicago Blue’, an RAN take on the USN’s blue.

 

June 1944 she then repainted to something called ‘Task Force Blue (Special Hull)’ which was described as greyer and darker than Chicago Blue, and ‘Chicago Blue (New Colour)’ described as slightly more blue than Task Force Blue (Special Hull) and as not holding its blue colour for more than a few days. I doubt that anyone really knows what these short-lived Australian paints were exactly.

 

She then repainted in August 1944 to another paint called simply called ‘T.F.B. (Task Force Blue)’ and described as a very dark grey (too dark, and darker than the RN's G10).  This photo would show it:

 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by dickrd

[thommo]

14 hours ago, dickrd said:

Well you choose an interesting time!

 

From the start of the year until June she was in ‘Chicago Blue’, an RAN take on the USN’s blue.

 

June 1944 she then repainted to something called ‘Task Force Blue (Special Hull)’ which was described as greyer and darker than Chicago Blue, and ‘Chicago Blue (New Colour)’ described as slightly more blue than Task Force Blue (Special Hull) and as not holding its blue colour for more than a few days. I doubt that anyone really knows what these short-lived Australian paints were exactly.

 

She then repainted in August 1944 to another paint called simply called ‘T.F.B. (Task Force Blue)’ and described as a very dark grey (too dark, and darker than the RN's G10).  This photo would show it:

 

 

 

 

Thanks mate, that is great info, I'll pass it on.