Can anyone point me in the direction of some good USN colors of paint. I cant seem to find much that I'm really happy with for my ships. What do you all use for your ships.
Testors Model Master Acrylic line has FS specification paints if you are really wanting to get into it. Be advised that the FS number system was not put in place until after WWII, but a lot of the colors remained the same just with new numbers and a few name changes. There is a chart for pre and post FS colors floating around the interwebs on a scale modeling site somewhere (warships.com maybe). If you want to get it perfect you can do research on "scale color" which takes into account the subtle changes that are apparent when viewing from different distances.
If it's a combat model, make sure you don't use enamels, as they make the hull too hard. As Das Butts pointed out, shipcamouflague.com is your friend for your USN painting needs
Find the color chip you want. Take it to Lowes or Home Depot. Have them mix the color using their computer scanner. I get it mixed up in a quarts size container. Les $$$ than going to a hobby shop and paying "Hobby prices". Bob IJN Kirishima IJN Nagato
I second the Lowes suggestion. You can get sample size (7 oz) paints mixed for about $3 each. The sample size will easily do several ships. The samples are only available in eggshell, not flat, but no one seemed to notice on my Bogue CVE. I ended up just picking colors from the available Valspar mixes and I was very pleased with the results. I used 4007-1B Autumn Fog for the light color, 4007-2A Sharkfin for the medium, and 4007-2C Blindfold for the dark color. It is best that you get the paint chips from shipcamouflag.com if you want to get true matches. If you just want to get close you can use the linked file from some of the research I did. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the colors, the references where I got the information are listed if you want to check them out.
Is it the water base type of paint you use? Something like This http://www.homedepot.com/Paint-Exterior-Paint-Stain-Paint-Primer-In-One/BEHR/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ3mwZbls4/h_d2/Navigation?catalogId=10053&cm_mmc=SEM|THD|G|D24|Paint|Behr&skwcid=TC|17368|%2Bbehr%20%2Bprimer%20%2Bpaint||S|b|22725785617&#/?c=1&3mw=3mw. Sorry for the long link, it's just the Behr Paint and primmer in one. Skippy
