Vietnam-era Navy Haze Gray

[Viojase]

Good morning! 

 

I am in need of help. I'm building a USS Forrest Sherman (DD-933) model that I'm converting to a Vietnam-era USS Jonas Ingram (DD-938). The problem I have is that I can't find the haze gray used in Vietnam as a stand-alone color. I was wondering if any of you all knew where I could find it. I should also note that, being colorblind, I am limited in the amount of mixing I am able to do with any degree of accuracy. Does anyone know where I can a very close equivalent color, or one that can be made by only mixing two colors together? This will be for airbrushing, and I'm not really used to lacquer or enamel (though I can learn if needed). I tend to use Tamiya, Vallejo, and Mission Models paints, but I'm not locked into any one brand. 

 

Thanks!

[Chuck Seiler]

Years ago I knew a guy who made modern US Navy ship models.  He was quite prolific.  He used Testors Dove Grey spray paint.  I don't know if that is around any more, but it is worth a look. 

 

Testors/Model Master makes a haze grey semi gloss acrylic, in a jar (hand paint).  I believe I saw in another post you make sci-fi related models.  You probably know how to get a good finish using a brush.  If not, there are some good articles/posts here that can help.  Since it is semi gloss, I would recommend perhaps a matt finish (DullCote) overlay.   

[Dr PR]

The US Navy changed to "Ocean Gray" in the late 1940s. We were still using it during the Vietnam War. I have also heard this called "Haze Gray" so maybe the Navy changed the name again. But it definitely was not the Haze Gray of WWII - the WWII color was far bluer than the Ocean Gray/Haze Gray we used in the '60s and '70s.

 

I went to a local Sherwin Williams paint store and they had a catalog of official US Navy colors. They found the correct mix for "26270 Haze Gray:"

 

BAC COLORANT    OZ    32   64   128

Y3 - Deep Gold       -        8      1      -

R2 - Maroon            -      14      1      -

L1 - Blue                  -      32      -      1

Quart  EXTRA WHITE

 

I'm not sure what this means in terms of mixing model colors, but I am guessing these proportions of yellow, red and blue shades were mixed into white paint to get the Haze Gray color. You might ask for a translation at a paint store.

 

 

Edited November 30, 2021 by Dr PR

[rcweir]

The ModelWarships forums are great for a question like this.   In particular, look at this thread:  http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=104955

 

But I wouldn't burn my brain up on the topic:  for my own model of a mid-1970s USN frigate I used Liquitex Neutral Gray and I think it looks perfect.   For a WWII model I had 4 different paint chip cards to work from for hull colors and none of those cards looked very much like the others.  So I felt free to mix my own.   But the post-war haze gray is such a neutral color that I think most any premixed, neutral medium gray will be fine and mixing can easily be avoided.

[Oldsalt1950]

Having spent much time on Navy ships, and my fair share of time repainting "Haze Grey", non=skid and a variety of other leaded paints let me say this. You will never get a match as no two ships were exactly the same shade of grey. Weather and sea salt do a number on the paint and how it looks. Add to this that depending on the Boatswains mate who ran the paint locker, all the paints were adulterated a bit by combining used cans of paint. Take for example 'White striping", it was never pure white paint on any of the ships I served on. The Boatswains mates always mixed a little blue paint in with it, the amount of course based on the SWAG principle. 

Jim