by Ron Smith
1/350 USS Clark DD-361 (Yankee Modelworks)
YMW Balch kit, a Porter class destroyer leader, back dated to the October 1941 appearance of USS Clark in Ms-1 camouflage. Ms-1 called for all vertical and horizontal surfaces to be 5-D dark grey except above the funnel tops to be 5-L light grey, not all ships followed the break between colors to the letter. I have painted Clark as she appears in a color photo of her at San Diego in October 1941. The 5-D I used is a custom mix....take a bottle of MM Acryl 5-D, mix well then pout out half the paint, mix equal parts black and insignia blue and refill the bottle of 5-D with that mix, shake well. This yields a color about ½ step lighter than real 5-D in the Munsell color system, extremely dark as 5-D should be but no so dark it appears dead black. 5-D should be barely discernible from the black boot stripe. All paints are acrylic except the darker rigging, that is MM metalizer dark anodic grey.
5”/38 barrels and 1.1” guns from L'Arsenal. The canvas cheaters and anti-sway straps for the boats made from painted cigarette rolling paper. Mast, funnel and boat cranes stays are stainless steel music wire and the rest of the rigging is silk suture.
