Topic starter
29/03/2010 4:55 pm
I am building the Model Shipways model of the CHAPERON and I need thoughts on colors. Look at the attached picture and tell me if you think the smoke stacks were black or perhaps a dark red such as an Indian red? The stage boom is definitely painted black on the outer end (to keep reflection down from the search light). I think the men's suites are probably black and the smoke stacks look a lighter shade.
What do you think?
29/03/2010 6:37 pm
I think they are red with black tops from the bottom of the upper roll to the tip of the acanthus leaves. There is no guarantee, actual or implied.
29/03/2010 8:01 pm
I think red
They are too light to be a very dark color, so pssibly a bright red. Definately not a dark red or black.
30/03/2010 3:04 am
Good question Jim. They might have been painted black to begin with, but had weathered to a burnt semi-black weathered color. They look kind of shiny, though. Toss a coin. Heads black, tails red. Until someone comes up with a computer program that anylizes old B & W photos and comes up with the actual colors, no one can prove anythng for sure. By the way, The kit color scheme is wrong - No red cabin doors, please; they were white. The skykight structure was white and the main deck was probably red. The main deck edging was also white - or red, maybe? The pilothouse was open at the front - the kit has a window there. Numerous other small errors too. Hope you are following Kurt VanDam's build series in Ships in Scale magazine. I've got a question for you on a different matter. Please PM me.
30/03/2010 4:23 pm
Red shows up as near black in B & W photos. Those stacks are showing a lot of reflection, which would make it hard to determine the gray scale, but if they were either red or black, it would show as the same dark hue in a black and white photo. Take note of B & W photos of the American flag.
31/03/2010 2:36 am
It is possible the stacks were gray. The tops are a dull black. The "shanks" are shiny and could be whatever was in the paint locker, but I think a bright red or orange. It's too bad I didn't ask Courtney Ellis!
31/03/2010 2:42 am
Some locomotive boiler jackets were "Russian Blue," which was not a paint but was the color of the steel stovepipes we can still buy today at most hardware stores. I doubt that the stacks were made of stovepipe, though.
Topic starter
04/04/2010 3:11 pm
Question Answered....maybe
In doing research in the Courtney M. Ellis collection at Western Kentucky Univ. on line, I came across this colored post card of the CHAPERON. As you can see the smoke stacks are definitely black, so on my model the stacks will also be black.