Antifouling paint colors on late 19th century steamships

[brunelrussell]

I've noticed that many, if not most, models of late 19th century ocean liners have a pink rather than red underbody (below the waterline); is this some sort of modeling convention or did they really have antifouling paint of this color?  Thanx a bunch.

[wq3296]

Greetings brun...

 

Nice question, and I wish I had the definitive answer instead of just an opinion. I expect that shipyards of that era would have discovered the merits of lead based paint which is typically red and probably anti fouling. Not sure why it would show up as pink on models - unless the original darker red color was bleached by sunlight.

 

wq3296 

[druxey]

I don't think it's fading from sunlight. The color is uniform on both sides and hull bottoms. One would expect a gradual fading as the surfaces turned horizontal, and more on one side of the model than the other.

[mtaylor]

I've seen a few of those.. I suspect it was convention at the time or some instability of the paint pigment.