Peacetime naval colors at the turn of the previous century

Warships are often magnificent sights -- especially the grandest ones like aircraft carriers, battleships and cruisers -- but one has to admit they're a little bioring, too. I mean, everything is grey! Unless they are close they can be hard to see. Maybe very useful in battle but not much fun for us taxpayers and naval aficionados.

Back in the late Nineteenth century and early Twentieth Century navies gave their citizens eye candy for those huge tax expenditure with some striking color schemes. Of course, when war came the ships were quickly painted gray, but  wars come rarely and most warships never se combat. But they're always in the public eye.

The 1:1250 model ship manufacturer Navis offers specially painted ships to show off this resplendent era of naval history. here are some ships from the ALNAVCO catalog:

USS Minneapolis

IJN Mikasa

Imperial Russian cruiser Rurik

SMS Emden

HMS London

USS Oregon

SMS Scharnhorst in China Station colors

SMS Scharnhorst in gray -- not quite as snazzy, but obviously more practical