A splash of paint
With everything mounted on various temporary bases etc I gave all parts a coat of Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey, this was followed by a lighter shade of base colour to parts of the model that were to be 507C Light Grey, this included the main hull sections, the cranes, some Carley rafts, two of the Twin 4” turrets, main turrets and some of the light AA weapons, Masts and Ship’s boats.
The Trumpeter colour scheme given is almost correct just a few tweaks but the colours given aren’t correct. The main hull of the ship was painted in an Admiralty disruptive scheme of four colours, they being 507C Light Grey, B5, B6 and 507A Home Fleet Dark Grey. For this build I used Tamiya colours and in reference to above Admiralty colours are as follows:
- 507A Dark Grey -Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black, this was shaded using XF-24 Dark Grey.
- 507C Light Grey- Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey and shaded using XF-19 mixed with XF-2 Flat White.
- B5 – Tamiya XF-50 Field Blue and shaded with XF-50 mixed with XF-2 Flat White.
- B6 – Tamiya XF-66 Light Grey and shaded with XF-66 mixed with XF-2 Flat White.
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The Hull had the waterline masked and the lower hull sprayed XF-9 Hull Red. When dry this was masked so that the black waterline could be applied, using XF-1 Flat Black.
Now the fun part, I carefully masked the ship’s hull sections etc and proceeded to apply the remaining camo colours of B5, B6 and 507A. I used Tamiya masking tape and some Blu-Tac putty to get the sharp edges on the demarcation between the colours, being careful not to rip off the railings when removing the masking tape. At this time the other assemblies were sprayed including the two Walrus aircraft which were sprayed in XF-21 Sky and shaded in a lighter mix of base colour. Contrary to the Trumpeter painting guide these aircraft had Sky undersides with Dark Grey and Dark Green uppers. The upper colours I hand painted using Vallejo colours. I used Vallejo colours to pick in all the additional colours except for the steel decks which were picked in by hand using Humbrol Matt 27 Dark Grey. The Ship’s boats were carefully masked several times to pick in interiors of open boats and under side/waterline areas which were white. The Motor Launches had teak decks and these were picked in using Humbrol Desert Yellow. The Admirals ‘Barge (one of the larger launches) had its hull painted Dark Blue.
With all painting done, the hull and aircraft were sprayed in X-22 Clear to give a “shiny” surface for the decals to adhere to. Once applied and dry these areas were matted down again ready for the washes and wooden deck application.
