Paint question;1:350 USS Ohio BB-12 Great White Fleet Era

unBrando · Post by **unBrando** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 3:58 pm

Ok, I realize this isn't a scifi subject, however, I have come to regard this site as a premier forum for all scale modeling, and truth be told, I do not like the dedicated forum/site for Ship building as I have waited several months for a response about this question to no avail.

I generally build scifi subjects myself, Star Trek mainly, but I have wanted to build this ship for quite some time.

I have a 1/350 Battleship Ohio from White Ensign Models. It has all the parts to build her, its mainly resin with lots of etch and brass barrels. It is, however, made to depict the ship sometime after 1909 but before 1922. I have acquired proper masts and gun barrels so to depict her from around 1903-04 time frame.

So to the question. I want to paint her white and red, like the Great White Fleet paint scheme, at that scale, what colors would be appropriate?

StarCruiser · Post by **StarCruiser** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:32 pm

The hull above the waterline, white (preferably a very pale grey).

Hull below the waterline, classic "hull red", almost a red oxide color.

From about the main deck up on the vertical surfaces of the hull and superstructure, "buff" - basically a tan/yellow color.

The deck, bare light wood on all areas that show a wood plank pattern.

A darker brownish tone on deck areas that do not show a wood pattern (linoleum).

There are references out there, many people have done models of these classy old ships and Wikipedia has an entire entry on the cruise with some photos:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_White_Fleet

There are quite a few reference links towards the bottom of the article.

StarCruiser · Post by **StarCruiser** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:38 pm

And to extend it - Pinterest has some shots, including one of the Ohio herself:

http://pinterest.com/pin/575616396093477158/

unBrando · Post by **unBrando** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:21 pm

awesome! Thank you so much, I was thinking the same thing, I guess I was torn with white or light aircraft grey. I guess I'll try a mix of flat white (40%) to light aircraft grey(60%). Maybe a flat red, maybe "caboose red"?
Thnaks for showing me this Pinterest, Ive heard of it before but I thought it was like Facebook or something.

There are alot more images there, I had looked at wike but there were't as many images.

Im not sure if you know the answer to this, what is the crest on the bow tip called? Its absent from the model I have, so I'll have to either make a decal or paint it on. It appears to have a crest of sorts with stars on top and vertical stripes below.

again thanks alot!

Bellerophon · Post by **Bellerophon** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 11:02 pm

Here's the Olympia at Penn's Landing in Philly. Obviously repainted many times, but clearly white from the waterline to the gunwales, and what looks a lot like sand yellow from there up. I'd be leery of painting the "white" part any color but white: it sure looks white in period photos (ignore the colorized ones!). Also, back then people were more literal minded (that is, they didn't have their heads up their you-know-where). They had white paint then and TR knew better than to send the Great Off-White Fleet around the world.

Naturally you can use paint effects to modulate the white so it doesn't look too uniform, but careful with that, too! They also had something back then called pride, and there were certainly sailors being lowered down the sides out in mid-ocean to freshen up the whiteness of the fleet so the people in Sydney, Manila, Yokohama, Ceylon, Suez, Gibraltar, etc. got to see a fleet that lived up to its name.

StarCruiser · Post by **StarCruiser** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 9:33 am

If you do a little weathering (light rust etc.) the pure white will dull down a bit.

Using an extremely light grey (literally just a touch of a light grey in the white) would provide a scaling effect but, these ships were well maintained during the entire cruise of the fleet so... it's up to you.

unBrando · Post by **unBrando** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 1:33 pm

Awesome pic of the Olympia, great reference.
Thanks for help, to both of you! Yea, I was really wanting to get the scale to come out with the painting, I do plan to weather, but only to a slight extent. All the 1/72 scale models at the National Museum of the US Navy at the Washington Naval yard depicts them very very clean, I just assumed the builder was more worried about rigging and all that wood used for the main deck, they look spectacular.
Also this model will be my first true attempt at capturing scale on a subject, I plan to start relatively soon, so I may post links to pics on the forum, I havent had much luck over at shipbuilder, as I had said before, since you both seem interested I'll keep you posted.
Very many thanks, to you both!