by Olaf Held » Tue Jan 17, 2017 3:28 am
Just to clarify, I have yet to find the source for Dechend suggesting those three Norwegian blue-gray tones. He recommended in 1942 or 1943 to render the (grey) colours less intense by adding small amounts of ultramarine and/or burnt umbra to them (need to look that one up). Mixing paints was strictly forbidden by the 1941 paint regulation. The following edition came out in 1944 and it allowed mixing, and it is very likely that this is based on the Dechend recommendation AND that they did so even before the 1944 edition was issued. In this we find more grey tones and blue tones when compared to 1941, and, above all, different paints for use in coastal areas and for the open sea.
The Gally colours were, as far as I know (but I never spoke to him), based on eye witness accounts from Tirpitz survivors and, in one case, from a Norwegian bloke living in that area, who seemed to remember very clearly the green on Tirpitz. This and the colours used on Hipper and Scheer at that time made it feasible for Tirpitz painted this way as well. We three (Robert, Antonio and myself) were debating this for a long time (even before Vol. I), and of course, we can be wrong, but in the end it seemed the most logical approach to us. Of course, finding that the ship was literally split in half as pointed out by Antonio (RAL 7000 one, RAL 7001 on the other side) made things even more difficult, esp. when you compare "known" colours in b/w-photos to the other colours, and how they contrast with each other. I always thought that this "split" was the greater find, not the use of that green...
Happy painting ~ Olaf!
Just to clarify, I have yet to find the source for Dechend suggesting [i]those[/i] three Norwegian blue-gray tones. He recommended in 1942 or 1943 to render the (grey) colours less intense by adding small amounts of ultramarine and/or burnt umbra to them (need to look that one up). Mixing paints was strictly forbidden by the 1941 paint regulation. The following edition came out in 1944 and it allowed mixing, and it is very likely that this is based on the Dechend recommendation AND that they did so even before the 1944 edition was issued. In this we find more grey tones and blue tones when compared to 1941, and, above all, different paints for use in coastal areas and for the open sea.
The Gally colours were, as far as I know (but I never spoke to him), based on eye witness accounts from Tirpitz survivors and, in one case, from a Norwegian bloke living in that area, who seemed to remember very clearly the green on Tirpitz. This and the colours used on Hipper and Scheer at that time made it feasible for Tirpitz painted this way as well. We three (Robert, Antonio and myself) were debating this for a long time (even before Vol. I), and of course, we can be wrong, but in the end it seemed the most logical approach to us. Of course, finding that the ship was literally split in half as pointed out by Antonio (RAL 7000 one, RAL 7001 on the other side) made things even more difficult, esp. when you compare "known" colours in b/w-photos to the other colours, and how they contrast with each other. I always thought that this "split" was the greater find, not the use of that green...
Happy painting ~ Olaf!