US Navy World War II Ship Colors Set 2
Snyder and Short Enterprises
Reviewed by Timothy Dike
A frequent question we get here on ModelWarships.com is. What colors did you use to paint your ship? The simple answer is that I have yet to find a perfect match for more than a couple colors right out of the bottle. If you want to do it right, your going to have to mix it yourself. That's where these chip sets really comes in handy. This set covers the US Navy WW II Greens and Browns used by the US Amphibious forces and PT-Boats. It also includes the prewar Mahongany Fight Deck Stain as well as Mountbatten Pink Dark as used on some USN destroyers. It also covers the neutral grays developed in late 1944 as a result of a shortage of blue pigment. These neutral grays were used in combination with each other and with the earlier purple-blues.
This set contains 30 chips on three sheets and covers the following colors:
Click the images
below to enlarge
Prewar (1920s - 1930s) 
  • Mahogany Flight Deck Stain
1942: 
  • Mountbatten Pink (Dark)
  • Brown 1A Green 1A
  • Brown 2A  Green 2A
  • Brown 3A   Green 3A
  • Brown 4A   Green 4A
1943 Early Greens 
  • 5-HG Haze Green
  • 5-OG Ocean Green
  • 5-NG Navy Green
  •  20-G Deck Green
1943 Revised Greens 
  • 5-PG Pale Green
  • 5-LG Light Green
  • 5-HG Haze Green (revised) 
  •  5-OG Ocean Green (revised)
  • 5-NG Navy Green (revised)
1944: 
  • #1 Green 
  • #2 Green
  •  #3 Green
  • #4 Brown
 1944-1945 Neutral Grays 
  • #46 Outside Gray 
  • #11 Outside Gray
  • #37 Light Gray 5-L
  • #7 Navy Gray 5-N
  • #27 Haze Gray 5-H
  • #4 Deck Gray 20
  • #17 Ocean Gray

These paint chip are actual painted patches using real paint, not simply printed colors. Printing technology today falls short of being able to consistently match colors, so this is the best method to reproduce the colors. The cards themselves are 8-1/2" x 11" heavy stock with individual colors painted on self adhesive patches that are then applied to the card. I keep mine in sheet protectors in a binder for handy reference. You might also find these handy when trying to interpret the colors in old Navy Photo's.

I like to lighten my colors slightly for scale effect, but to give me a starting point I use these chips and then add a drop or two of white. I cant help but recommend this set, it is the best reference available for matching colors for US Navy ships of WW II. It has an $18.00 retail price but is worth every penny, get one!
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