Modern French Navy Paint or Marine Nationale

[VIPER1242]

Hi, does anyone have any info on the modern French navy paint colours, Hull, superstructure, deck and under the waterline.
I know the paint guru Michael is no longer with us, which who is greatly missed. So hopefully someone else would be able to help?

[MikeJames]

The Marine Nationale paints their ships in the standard four colours, ship's side gray, the deck grey, a wide black boot topping and the standard red anti-fouling. In addition, on some ships, there is a darker area of heat resistant paint used around missile launchers.

The red can be any reasonable red primer, and the black can be the semi-gloss of your choice, as you have surmised, the question is what is the colour of their greys in use?

It might surprise you to know that French ships based in the Pacific source their paint from Australia, using AS2700 paint codes.

The closest I have been able to ascertain is that the ship's side grey, for the hull and superstructure, is a relatively light grey, possibly N24 Silver Grey, or perhaps N12 pastel grey.

The decks are probably N43 Pipeline grey, as they are somewhat lighter than the N63 Pewter the RAN uses.

The flight decks and areas around the missile launchers are a darker, heat-resistant paint, and this is probably closest to N55 lead grey.

Mike

[VIPER1242]

Cheers Mike. I sent you a pm