Dido class HMS Euryalus colour scheme 1941

[robgizlu]

With the promise of the Trumpeter HMS Naiad iminent, and with thoughts of me doing HMS Euralys in her 1941 early Admiralty disruptive scheme, I'm indebted to Evert-Jan Foeth for permission to use his excellent profile available from his excellent web site:

https://ontheslipway.com/gallery-euryalus/

 

HMS Euryralus appeared in this florid scheme in Summer 1941 just after commissioning

 

 

Evert-Jan has done a sterling job of making sense of all the swirls.........

 

 

 

The annotations are mine and I'm keen to check that there is a consensus that these are appropriate and correct?

 

Evert-Jan discovered a tantalising photo from the IWM collections showing the vessel being painted prior to commission with "B5" chalked on a superstructure side - talk about "paint by numbers"....

 

 

So one of the shades very clearly has to be B5.

Raven records that later iin 1941 she was repainted 507A hull with 507C superstructure, possibly whilst in the Med

By late 1941 she'd been repainted again to an "Alexandria" style "rounded" pattern of 507A patches over 507c as depicted in this photo...

 

 

In her earliest Disruptive pattern - no photo has been found for her port side pattern but it is believed that it mimicked that of Cleopatra and Charybdis, fellow Dido cruisers.

 

Here's Charybdis port side

 

 

And just for completeness sake here's Cleopatra at Scap Flow in January 1942..

 

 

From what I can see - this scheme seems identical to that of Euryalus.

 

Here's a 1/700 version neatly done by @Vlad

 

 

Though I think he has used 507C rather than MS4A?

EJ also feels the camo pattern rolled onto the deck....

 

So what are your thoughts all?

Many Thanks

Rob

[foeth]

So, this pattern was the offspring of our work when piecing together the disruptive pattern of HMS Prince of Wales (with @dickrd and others, see @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies final image). The pattern was reconstructed before the latest incarnation of the tones was issued so might be / is a bit off (made the image in PaintShopPro which I longer have, don't know if I can update it at al) . So, it was dickrd who pointed me towards the IWM pic showing B5 on the bulkhead (which is not B5 on my pattern!) and he shared the aerial view of Eurylaus which is very clear, so I'm confident about the accuracy of the deck layout (Also of HMS Prince of Wales' deck colour that is not in Jamie's version and... welll.... people miss the different tones applied to the turret roofs and the decks, but soit 😉).

 

So, indeed, Cleopatra shares the same pattern and Charydbis is said to carry the same (Raven warship profiles), but Raven could not confirm that. I went over the images of Euryalus & Cleopatra during the battle of the (2nd?) Sirte  first found this image

 

ROYAL NAVY CONVOY FROM ALEXANDRIA TO MALTA MEETS AND ENGAGES ITALIAN WARSHIPS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN, 22 MARCH 1942. © IWM (A 8166) IWM Non Commercial License

 

which is sadly mirrored. Fortunately the IWM expanded their online collection a bit and finally found this one

 

 

Didn't buy a larger image as my Euryalus period was over, but it's a nice confirmation. Not only that Charybdis carried the same pattern but that official patterns from that time existed at all (or course), even though not retrieved as far as I know.

 

 

We at first suspected that Raven might have had the Prince of Wales pattern but as his interpretation shifted with each publication and with these three variations I'm fairly sure he does not have it. The link with Prince of Wales is interesting as it's also a five-tone scheme, but B5 was later removed from her pallette. Which means that MS4--> B6 might be an option for Euryalus?

Anyway. and also:

 

BRITISH NAVAL ESCORT AND CONVOY IN MEDITERRANEAN, SEPTEMBER 1941, ON BOARD HMS SHEFFIELD, ESCORTING A MALTA CONVOY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN (OPERATION HALBERD). THE CONVOY GOT THROUGH TO MALTA AFTER BEING ATTACKED BY THREE GROUPS OF ENEMY TORPEDO CARRYING AIRCRAFT HEAVILY ESCORTED BY FIGHTERS IN THE CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN. 14 ENEMY AIRCRAFT WERE DESTROYED AND HMS NELSON WAS DAMAGED BY AN AERIAL TORPEDO.. © IWM (A 5771) IWM Non Commercial License

 

[Vlad]

 

 

 

I took the liberty of crudely recolouring Foeth's profile when I was building my model, using the more up to date and correct colours.

 

I also annotated this with minor differences I found between the patterns on Cleopatra and Euryalus (note my model is Cleopatra).

 

I also updated the colours to MS1 - B5 - MS3 - MS4 - 507C as you spotted. This is purely speculative, but with the correct tones in hand, I felt this better matched the contrast progression seen in the pictures. I feel that MS3 and MS4 are very likely, but the darkest and lightest could plausibly be something else.

 

Note however at this point that I painted my Cleopatra model partly as a test for my Prince of Wales, which influenced my choice of colours to better overlap with that (which is still very plausible). These were first pass experimental paint matches, not as good or accurate as my later mixes for PoW.

I chose to not use the deck pattern than Foeth painted, for two reasons. Firstly, I had no direct photo proof it existed (though it may well have, other ships definitely had deck camo). But secondly, in absence of proof, I felt it would make the model look too much like a featureless blob, while the natural deck breaks up rest of the camo for better model viewing (in my opinion). Again, this was a personal choice.

 

PM me an email address and I can send you the various pictures I collected while researching this, sadly not many nor good quality but might be something there you haven't seen.

Edited January 12 by Vlad

[dickrd]

Gosh, this must be more than a decade ago now and before I mentioned the correct RN WW2 camouflage colours to the new owner of the Colourcoats paint range @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies! As @foeth mentions, there is a very clear overhead photo of Euryalus on 8th August 1941 in the IWM collection showing her wearing the deck pattern as drawn above. Sadly it is not available to view on-line

[robgizlu]

58 minutes ago, dickrd said:

Gosh, this must be more than a decade ago now and before I mentioned the correct RN WW2 camouflage colours to the new owner of the Colourcoats paint range @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies! As @foeth mentions, there is a very clear overhead photo of Euryalus on 8th August 1941 in the IWM collection showing her wearing the deck pattern as drawn above. Sadly it is not available to view on-line

Dick - are you broadly happy with the colour attributions (my annotation should have read MS1 NOT MS2!)?

Especially MS4A vs 507c??

Thanks

Rob

[DFritz]

When I built the Iron Shipwright HMS Sirius model as Cleopatra, I used MS1, B5, MS3, B6 and MS4a as the color scheme. They were the old WEM paints, so not as accurate as Colourcoats, but the overall scheme was similar in tone to the B&W photos.

Doug Fritz

[DFritz]

Model photo

[robgizlu]

That is a super looking model Doug.  Personally I'm not sure about B6 - evidence for it's use is sparse, I'm assuming that your B5 is the greyish hue  surrounded by the MS1 midships? 

However this is all conjecture, and short of a colour photo coming to light, we'll never really be certain

Rob

[DFritz]

Rob, as I said, the paints are the old WEM shades. The midship patch is MS3 if I remember correctly (I painted it about 10 years ago). The area beneath X turret is WEM B5 which is obviously too grey. Thinking back and looking at the model again, I painted some of the patches MS4 as well, so I guess I got a little carried away with the camo scheme. I should have used the MS4 for the B6 areas as well.

Regards, 

Doug