The Ship Model Forum

I stumbled on a couple of my Holy Grail model kits (all Airfix: HMS Victorious aircraft carrier, HMS Lion light cruiser, and HMS Devonshire guided missile destroyer) recently and am eager to start the builds. My questions are what color grey (brand/code) should the hulls be? Same question for the decks. looking at some old Jane's Fighting Ships the decks seem to be a deep blue or deep gray. I am guessing they were covered with some kind of no-skid coating. Pls help!!

The colour for the hull and Weatherworks back then would have been BS381C 697 Light Admiralty Grey and only WEM did that colour in a small tinlet.

The deck green was BS4800 14C39 (no name) and the alternate BS381C 226 Medium Brunswick Green. Humbrol do paints called Brunswick Green and Deck Green but they are not correct.

Humbrol also do Dark Admiralty Grey and Dark Sea Grey which were flight deck colours but again, they aren’t the right colour. Only the name is right. Their DAG is too dark.

If you are in the UK, most of those colours you can get in tinlets from Phoenix Paints who are a railway mob specialising in Standard Colours.

The attached might help but the Humbrol Paints it refers to like HN1 etc. are long gone. The article has an error saying deck green is BS381C 220 Olive Green. This was actually the colour used by the RFAs and RMAS vessels. Marine Commando helicopters used this colour too.