Austro-Hungarian Navy
Before the war these ships were painted in dark green. This was ordered changed to pale gray in December of 1913. Some of the models in the Arsenal Museum in Vienna are shown in this scheme. While some ships may have still been dark green at the start of the war, most, especially the bigger and more modern ships were gray. Decks were pale wood. Cortecine does not seem to have been used as much. It was probably not considered important as Austrian major ships rarely stayed at sea long enough for anyone to get uncomfortable!
I know of only one instance where the battleships 'over-nighted' at sea, during the war. Water lines were red. Later, when grey was adopted they became mid-green. Torpedo boats were also painted in dark green.
During the mid-war period Austrian ships changed to a light grey. This was undoubtedly to take advan-tage of the frequent misty conditions in the Adriatic at some times of the year. At the same time most destroyers and torpedo boats changed to pale grey. Austrian submarines were usually painted pale grey all over.
France
French large warships were usually painted in a mid grey. Many ships adopted false bow waves to confuse submarines. The decks were wood, but were not holystoned and therefore had a more faded wood color. Because of the French practice of making defaulters serve out punishment by hard labor, it was common for some turrets on major ships to appear in a shade of "Bronze Brown." This was achieved by having the defaulters scrub the outside of those particular turrets in used cooking oil left over from the gallery. This can be seen in black and white photographs, where some turrets appear very much darker than the rest. Which turrets this was done to varied from ship to ship.
Torpedo boats were painted in dark grey or black. Destroyers and torpedo boats later adopted mid-grey. Upper surfaces were usually hull color, but on ships that were coal fired (most) black was often used around bunkers. The destroyers delivered from Japan were in mid-blue-grey. On most French warships squadron and flotilla markings on funnels were quite prominent. In some cases sections of the bow and stern was painted black, then followed by a sawtooth pattern of white on the inner side. The 'teeth' were into the edge of the black. This was to confuse submarines as to speed and direction of target movement. Waterlines were black or red.
Japan
Japanese warships that went to the Mediterranean were painted in standard Japanese mid-blue-grey, with canvas also overpainted in grey. Waterlines were black. They were very neat and tidy vessels that created a good impression on all that served with them. The Australians worked with the Japanese and seemed to hold them in much higher opinion than French or Italian ships.
USA
American warships adopted similar paint schemes to those of the Royal Navy when serving with the Grand Fleet. Others were painted in a standard mid-grey, but the USN seems to have adopted camouflage amongst its smaller warships with some enthusiasm. Destroyers were often camou-flaged in confusion patterns involving a strong and contrasting mix of colors. US involvement was too short for many other changes to take place.
More WWI Camoflage
BT
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