Calling all Danton class semi/intermediate-dreadnought fans

[Dan Banks]

Went thru the book and there are very few photos of the boats. In none of the boat pictures are they painted white. The launches and smaller boats are the same color as the hull. The motor boats look to be either black or dark blue with white or light grey wheel houses. The interior of the oared boats look white with wood seats and floor grates. In quite a few photos the complete upper portion of the boats are covered in a light colored canvas, and in many wartime shots, there are no boats except whalers on davits, workboats?

[Plasma_Frigate]

Hi Dan. Thanks for your invaluable help. We don't have those paints you mentioned, here in Australia. In the end I went with Tamiya spray TS32, Haze Grey. It's a medium grey, slightly blue-grey (to me anyway). It's probably not the right colour but its the best I could find to compromise with.

I'll follow your assumptions for the boats. So, mostly grey hulls with white and brown interiors. I'll experiment a little with the two motorboats. Many thanks.

[Caravellarella]

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... /index.htm

[Spopovich]

What do these PE pieces represent in Hobby Boss Condorcet? She's the only of the trio to have them, though on the painting plans they are not visible.

[Dan Banks]

Elevated walkways me thinks?

[chuck]

I think they are rails for movable searchlights.

[Timmy C]

Agreed with Chuck - you can actually see them in the overhead drawing for the painting guide as darker lines on the deck. They terminate where the searchlights are at the edges of the deck. Presumably the lights would be moved out of the way when the guns need to train over their location or fear of gun blast damage requires them to be moved.

[vladimir yakubov]

Looks like all of the color profiles of the Condorcet are wrong, as far as the underwater hull color. Here's Condorcet before launch on the original autochrome photographs:



As you can see the color is bright green with a pretty wide red stripe at the waterline.

Vladimir

[pascalemod]

Looks like all of the color profiles of the Condorcet are wrong, as far as the underwater hull color. Here's Condorcet before launch on the original autochrome photographs:



As you can see the color is bright green with a pretty wide red stripe at the waterline.

Vladimir

First of all, wonderful bit of history here!

The launch colors are often temporary, arent they? Waterline is also - i mean no armor on her, so waterline is low. Does the red line go UP with the ship going down on armor fitted? Does the green extends up and over the red? How do we know this? This photo only shows how she is at launch...

French were green bottomed, yes we knew that, and there was or wasnt red stripe (builders model implies as much) but the width of it etc? I dont think youre seeing a final version is what Im saying, because the ship doesnt have armor on it, and many ships before launch would have different paint on hull. Passenger liners were painted white for example for launch, then black for service. Take even something as well photographed as your average Kriegsmarine capital ship - all had either very wide boot topping that sat low, or whatever else.

Im not saying your photos are wrong or useless, but by posting them I wonder if you think the ship had half green half red lower hull or not.

I do think red on french ship is off, green bottom is right with that copper green color. Red line is also right. The thickness of it is the trick, and Im pretty sure it was thinner than on that picture - and way higher. What was after though - black or white line - I have no idea, but assume black.

[vladimir yakubov]

First of all, wonderful bit of history here!

The launch colors are often temporary, arent they? Waterline is also - i mean no armor on her, so waterline is low. Does the red line go UP with the ship going down on armor fitted? Does the green extends up and over the red? How do we know this? This photo only shows how she is at launch...

Not necessarily temporary. French naval historian Luc Feron described the underwater colors as exactly that - green on the lower half of the hull with the wide red stripe along the waterline. So this fits with his descriptions.

Im not saying your photos are wrong or useless, but by posting them I wonder if you think the ship had half green half red lower hull or not.

Yes, that fits with the descriptions of the underwater colors. Unless you have other info I'd rather do with the photographic evidence .

I do think red on french ship is off, green bottom is right with that copper green color. Red line is also right. The thickness of it is the trick, and Im pretty sure it was thinner than on that picture - and way higher. What was after though - black or white line - I have no idea, but assume black.

Even if you assume that it was all red or all green, both green and red on the above profiles from the Trumperter kit are way off on shade.

[vladimir yakubov]

Here's the page describing the lower hull paint. I don't read French, but from Google translate it seems like the green was very bright and there was at least 1m wide red stripe (which in 1/350th scale would be about 3mm or 3/16") between the white waterline and green hull color.

[pascalemod]

First of all, wonderful bit of history here!

The launch colors are often temporary, arent they? Waterline is also - i mean no armor on her, so waterline is low. Does the red line go UP with the ship going down on armor fitted? Does the green extends up and over the red? How do we know this? This photo only shows how she is at launch...

Not necessarily temporary. French naval historian Luc Feron described the underwater colors as exactly that - green on the lower half of the hull with the wide red stripe along the waterline. So this fits with his descriptions.

Im not saying your photos are wrong or useless, but by posting them I wonder if you think the ship had half green half red lower hull or not.

Yes, that fits with the descriptions of the underwater colors. Unless you have other info I'd rather do with the photographic evidence .

I do think red on french ship is off, green bottom is right with that copper green color. Red line is also right. The thickness of it is the trick, and Im pretty sure it was thinner than on that picture - and way higher. What was after though - black or white line - I have no idea, but assume black.

Even if you assume that it was all red or all green, both green and red on the above profiles from the Trumperter kit are way off on shade.

Very good. If that's the case, Ill go with that.
This picture has to be a contemporary of the one you posted - any thoughts what the three different colors appear (upper, mid, and shinier lower?)

So then the arsenal model of the ship isn't that far off is it? LIke with Hood and recent discovery of her grey bottom, as per dockyard workers or some builders models of other British ships with grey bottoms - perhaps these contemporary ships are good references after all? I mean yes, Danton had her upper works repainted in greys, but - the bottom has to be something thats shown here...

[vladimir yakubov]

This picture has to be a contemporary of the one you posted - any thoughts what the three different colors appear (upper, mid, and shinier lower?)

That's a mystery to me. It's obviously three different colors and we can assume that the two bottom ones are the ones from the color photo, but since the upper bad is painted on the armor belt, it's not in the color photo. Unfortunately I have no idea what that color might be .

So then the arsenal model of the ship isn't that far off is it? LIke with Hood and recent discovery of her grey bottom, as per dockyard workers or some builders models of other British ships with grey bottoms - perhaps these contemporary ships are good references after all? I mean yes, Danton had her upper works repainted in greys, but - the bottom has to be something thats shown here...

1165px-Danton-MnM_25_MG_23-IMG_6250.jpg

It's definitely in the ballpark, but not super close. Just one more piece of the puzzle .

[Tim Jacobs]

Found this on a Discord server. This is Voltaire in drydock in November 1918 after a torpedo hit.

It looks like there are only two colors on the hull.

Or is the intermediate strip between the hull color and the anti-foul actually a third color?

[Iceman 29]

�Rereading of Luc F�ron (who, by the way, indicates that the "Schweinfurt green" seems to have been largely maintained until the end of the 1st World War ... another ministerial dispatch of January 28, 1908 modifies considerably the colors of the French buildings ... a "bluish gray" on the dead works and the disappearance of the white border of 1899. The "Danton" came out brand new in 1911, so there is no reason to suppose that the instructions were not strictly applied, even if on the buildings already in service, the changes in paintwork must have been slower and more random.��

��Single red band separating the green from the grey.��

http://warpaints.net/viewtopic.php?f=14 ... 9&start=30

[Tim Jacobs]

Iceman - very helpful.

Thank you!

Tim

[Iceman 29]

You're welcome Tim.

I will use it for the 1915 version of the battleship Bretagne.

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