Ships Posters of all eras and countries

In this section you will discover posters that are around on the world wide web since about two decades. They are depicting fleets in their integrality, with class names, dates, sister-ships or numbers, and sometimes status (in construction, project, cancelled...). These fleets posters are to cover the cold war, WW1 and WW2. Alongside you will find also posters of individual ships, and of ancient ships. In this case, ancient antiquity, medieval, renaissance ships and soon, enlightenment era and XIXth Century. However from 1860 wait to see many new posters of the fleets pre-WW1 and Tsushima. Soon also to be found here, maps and infographics. Indeed since the 1990s many recaps of various fleets has been done and many new ones will follow.

I can provide true HD printing versions which can be .Tiff or .Bmp, converted to CMYK. Or you can purchase these on my online shop Pixels.com
and RedBubble
(More posters and more shops to come);

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Notice: Before ordering on RedBubble (or any online shop for that matter) always check the product is manufactured and shipped close to you: https://help.redbubble.com/hc/en-us/articles/217196086

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New: 21/01/26: US Navy Poster For Free to Print

USN Poster, cleaned up, and free to download, share and print, with the print version at 300 dpi here. These old illustrations came for the original, and had to be scanned in 8 parts. It was however stored in a cave that was flooded, a miracle it survived. The profiles are goinf to be used in a "real thing" variant with all individual ships for the next 4th of July hopefully and this one redone on the long run with 1:144 scale detailed illustrations this year. Here are also vignettes, at 700 and 300 pixels

22/12/25: Close to Xmas, The Real Thing Cold War Royal Navy Poster, V1

The RN in the cold war: The sum of all armed ships in service from 1945 to 1991. Even listed here (light grey silhouettes) are ships planned, in development or in construction in 1991. Ships built in the interwar and WW2 that were not upgraded and onli kept in service for a few years are not integrated here. This is also V1. V2 will integrate HD profiles of all ships, at 1:700 scale. To see a 2500 pix wide, 72 dpi scale version click here. The base is 70x50 cm 300 dpi. It will be available for purchase when all HD profiles will be completed next year.

21/10/25: Trafalgar Day ! RN Day: Real Thing WW2 Poster.

Work in Progress: Part I. Capital Ships (Battleships and Aircraft Carriers, including escort Carriers). The ultimate goal is to have all ships represented at 1:700 albeit a long term project is the same at 1:350. Enormous image precise down to the door knob, it will weight several gigaoctets at 300 dpi resolution. The actual 1:700 "small" version already is 72 Dpi and 724,29 cm wide, 511,88 cm tall (20531/14510 pixels). The part showed here is just a fraction. Still a lot of white background to fill with light ships, destroyers to sloops and submarines, but also later supply ships and auxiliaries and amphibious crafts and ships, all with their individual livery.

New: 01/06/25: Special Jutland: The Kaiserliches marine - The real Thing

The Kaiserliches Marine in 1914-18: All ships down to the small gunboat launch at 1:700 scale. All ships down to small launches, and projects, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, torpedo boats, gunboats…

New: 23/05/25:Chacal class Destroyer

28/04/25 Navigatori class DDs

The Scout Usordimare as completed in 1929, note the tall bridge.

Verrazano in 1939, before the second round of modifications


Nicolo Zeno "claudus" camouflage.

21/04/25 Gato/Tench/Balao/Tambor

USS Tirante, most successful of the Tench class


Poster of USS Tang in 1944


USS Wahoo in 1942, measure 9


USS Gato in 1944, Measure 23-3S


USS Tambor SS198, 1940 Measure 9


USS Tautog SS199 ms 32/3SS-B

16/05/25 Kagerō class destroyers

Kagero class, IJN Amatsukaze

18/04/25 I-class destroyers

HMS Icarus in August 1942, Operation Pedestal.
More to core, much more...

14/04/25 Type 35 TBs

T-1 as commissioned, with the standard livery, dark hull, light gray superstructures, number on bridge.


T2 in 1942, still early livery but later clipper bow

T8 in 1942, camouflaged

Protected Cruiser Tage



Author's rendition of HMS Splendid, at the end of her December 1942 patrol.


Author's rendition of Atropo in April 1941


KMS Falke as built.


Author's profile and poster


Author's rendition of the Micca in 1943

01/01/25: Kriegsmarine.

"rear thing" poster of the Kriegsmarine, V1. Capital ship at the center, including Plan Z ones.


New Kriegsmarine Poster "real thing" in development, 2025.

Sumner/Gearing classes

Flecher class

USS Fletcher in June 1942 as completed


USS Fletcher Ms12, battle of Tassafaronga November 1942


USS La Valette, MS 12 late 1942


USS Leutze Ms36 scheme 16d, 1944

USS Twiggs (low bridge type) MS32/6d, 1944

USS Kidd (Low bridge Type), Ms22, 1945

Benson/Gleaves class

USS Mayo (DD 422) of the Benson class, just completed in sea trials, original configuration, Sept. 1940


USS Gleaves in late 1941, Measure 2 graded system.


USS Meade DD 602, Measure 12 mod, graded system, fall 1942.

Sims class

USS Hugues, DD-410 as completed in 1940





USS Mustin DD-413 in June 1942, measure 12.

Somers class

USS Somers in Ocean Grey, 1938





USS Warrington in Measure 16 camouflage, April 1943,





USS David in measure 32, May 1945

Bagley class

USS Ralph Talbot in Measure 21, October 1942





USS Patterson, Measure 31 2D, March 1944

Gridley class

HD Illustration of USS Bagley in July 1938

Mahan class

HD rendition of USS Mahan, as commissioned in 1938. Note the tripod foremast and pole mainmast aft od the funnel. In 1939 this one was removed and replaced by small half-mast aft of the funnel. Standard Ocean Grey and large pennant markings were the norm as through the neutrality patrols of 1941.






Same ship, different timeline, showing her wartime modifications by late 1944 in the Philippines, shortly before she was attacked by Kamikazes (and sunk).

Porter class

"Gold Platters": comparison between the Farraguts standard destroyers and Porters flotilla leaders





USS Porter as built, 1937. Common peacetime Light Gray 5-L livery (no measure assigned) with dark blue-grey decks and large identification numbers, white on black BG.





USS Clarke in measure 1 Dark Gray System, neurrality patrols, Atlantic, late 1941. Same ship with added ASW racks aft and extra DCTs aft.





USS Porter in measure 21 Navy Blue System (Navy Blue 5-N Vertical surfacesn Deck Blue, 20-B for vertical ones), 1942. Note the early reconstruction results: Single pole mast with radar, razed aft structure, single Mark 37 director, 20mm AA added.





(to come) USS Selfridge after loosing her bow at the battle of Vella Lavella, as rebuilt in April 1944: The ultimate transformation of the class: Two twin Mark37 DP turrets, 40 mm and 20mm guns, razed forward bridge. Measure 32 design 22D: Wavy pattern of light grey and black. Decks like 3D.



USS Phelps in October 1944: Measure 32 Design 3D: Light Gray 5-L, Ocean Gray 5-O, Black and for horizontal surfaces Deck Blue, 20-B, Ocean Gray 5-O.

Farragut class

Author's HD rendition of USS Farragut as completed, off Norfolk during her extended trials and developmental tests in December 1934





USS Mc Donough in December 1943, Measure 21 Ocean blue





USS Dale in measure 31 design 5D, May 1944

Wickes-Clemson class

Comparison between the Wickes and Clemson class





USS Clemson, DD-186, as completed in December 1919

Caldwell class

USS Caldwell in 1917 with her remarkable McKay LV camouflage





USS Stockton in 1918





HMS Ludlow in 1942

Sampson class

USS Rowan, DD-64, in August 1916 as completed.





USS Allen in 1918 (to come)

Tucker class

Profile HD of USS Jacob Jones before the US went at war, 1917, by the author

O'Brien class

USS O'Brien, Queenstown, Ireland 1918. She is the only one which camouflage has been photographed.

Cassin class

USS Duncan 1916

Paulding class

USS Patterson in 1916 with her dark gray neutrality patrols livery. She was flagship of her own group, was the first to perform an operational refuelling at sea (RAS) in mid-atlantic, and in 1918 experimented the first US hunter-killer group leading a flotilla of 110 ft SC-chasers.





USS Roe in 1918, Roe sub-class





USS Fanning (DD-37) in 1918, alternative 'four-piper' variant of the Paulding class.





USS MacCall



Various liveries of the Paulding class.





Author's HD illustration of the Smith class



BAP Coronel Bolognesi in the 1970s


HMS X1 profile

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Ship's Camouflage liveries

This section is devoted about the brand new profiles of Naval Encyclopedia. The old ones about 1/750 scale, were hand made about twenty years ago and not crisp and clean than the ones presented here, made on photoshop in great detail. The aim of each of these is to depict interesting liveries. It will not be limited to WW2 ships although it is a piece of choice, but WW1 as well and... some cold war vessels as well. Next to come: The Town class cruisers.

River class Frigates

Miscellaneous

GUPPy-III Taiwanese (ROCS) submarine Hai Shi

King George V class

Help support the site
- King George V class poster
[gallery ids="36636,36614,36613,36635,36612,36593,36616,36615"]

The Illustrious class (1936)

The first, and arguably most famous Armoured Aircraft Carriers of WW2. They inspired later in the war, the construction of the USN Midway class, and conversion of IJN Shinano on the Japanese side. In all, six of these (with the Implacable class) were built, and the Malta (1945) cancelled.



Old author's illustration





hms illustrious 1940





hms illustrious 1943





hms Formidable 1942





hms victorious 1944





hms indomitable





HMS Victorious in 1965

The Crown colony class (in the works)

Crown colony class profiles: The base design is ready: HMS Fiji off the West African Coast with Force H, Sept. 1940 with her standard 2-tone Grey livery: The hull is almost medum grey, superstuctures light gray. All camoufages for each and every ship and appearance in cold war years as well will be covered and condensed into a global poster.

1892 Rurik, from completion to the battle of Uslan

Author's profile: Rurik 1895, in white livery.


Rurik in the Pacific, 1899.


Rurik in overall marine green-grey, battle of Ulsan, 1904.

The Town class (1936)

Nearly all camouflage variants of the Town class cruisers: HMS Southampton, Newcastle, Sheffield, Glasgow, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Gloucester, Belfast and Edinburgh.

Independence class poster

Complete overview of all camouflage measures applied to the class. Help this website also by getting the poster or any other merchandise available on the shop.

Atlanta class AA cruisers

Small version.

Deustchland class cruisers

Poster of the Deutschland class, all camouflage liveries and evolution. Small version
.

USN submarine GUPPY conversion program

Poster showing all types and variations of the GUPPY cold war conversions of WW2 Gato class submarines.

Tennessee class Battleships

The Tennessee class battleships, evolution and camouflage.

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HD
Click to purchase the print version

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WW2 Bismarck class Battleships

The Bismarck class battleships: Click to Purchase and support naval encyclopedia

WW2 Scharnhorst class Battleships

The Scharnhorst class: Six profiles and their different variants and camouflage until late 1943 and the battle of the north cape. Click to purchase the HD version

WW2 New Orleans class cruisers

New Orleans class cruisers - Click to purchase the HD version

WW2 Leander class cruisers

Purchase

WW2 USN Brooklyn class cruisers

Purchase

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'The Real Thing' posters

This serie started from a mad idea: Representing each and every individual ships of any navy, big and small, rather than the "class-oriented" approach that made posters more handy to make and see, since ships are far larger. However like cold statistics are often hard to grasp and related on the human level, using this ship-per-ship approach enabled to have a better grasp of what a fleet in being represents. Many has been done already for many navies, especially for the cold war, helping to appreciate the scope, sometimes epic, of naval power. Just citing a class does not represent the amplitude of the industrial effort to built from two to a hundred vessels, and more (like the recent USN posters related to amphibious ships and crafts) or the Type VII U-Boats for the Kriegsmarine. These posters are painfully long to create, not only because the illustrations of each ship needed to be represented, meaning its own specifics at a specific point in time, but a camouflage pattern also. This is just the ultimate reference for any warship nerd. Apart WW1 Royal Navy (made two years ago), all these posters are work in progress, with sub-parts made separately, to be reunited over time on the "big picture". These really are the ultimate posters, of gargantuan size that would easily fit an entire wall, with enough detail still to have people looking close. Only this way, a poster could give justice a fleet.

WW1 British TBs POSTER

Global poster with all pre-WWI and WWI known British Torpedo Boats, individually represented.

Kaiserliches Marine U-Boats POSTER

Global poster with all WWI German submarines, individually represented, and projects, plus explanations or larger illustrations types.

IJN Japanese WW2 Destroyers POSTER

Imperial Japanese Navy Destroyers of world war two: The POSTER. All classes represented since the 1919 Minekaze class, including those never built and cancelled or never completed.

Purchase on redbubble

The French Navy in WW2 - The Real Thing

Weekly Poster !

And this is a big one, long in the making: The French Navy in WW2, the "real thing", with all individual ships represented, but a few vintrage WWI ships still in service. Even naval aviation in represented, as well as sub-section devoted to the Free French Navy lend-lease fleet, and 1940 ships/subs in construction at the start of WW2 and projects. See the HD version
.

Purchase on redbubble

USN WW2 Amphibious fleet

A global poster showing all USN WW2 amphibious ships and amphibious crafts. Attention, massive image, CPU heavy.

WW2 US Navy - 'The Real Thing'

4 of July Poster ! The US Navy in WW2 - The real thing
A year of work later, the "real thing" version of the US Navy in WW2, to represent it in all its awesomeness, with each single ship. It's an Herculean task and there is a long way forward, as many profiles needs to be made HD and then declined into a multitude of liveries and camouflages (when known).
At last it is nearly completed for the composition (less PT-Boats and Liberty-Ships), and reduced ten times as Facebook would not accept the original, which is 1/700 scale but 6 meters by 4.2 meters (19.6 feets x 13.7 feets), almost the size of boats many ships carried. Status! Work in progress. Not available for purchase right now.




Click to see the HD version. Based on
mike 1984 russia
profiles. Released under CC licence. note: Should be updated again with a more standard format and mire misc. and special subs.

WW1 Royal Navy

This is litteraly the poster to rule them all. Long in the making, with about twenty new illustrations and painstaking research, this is the actual portrayal of each and every single ship, from the largest battlecruisers down to the small Coastal Motor Boats of the Royal Navy in WW1. An immediate sense of the industrial scale of it, from the 1880s to 1918. You can purchase the very large printed version (The original is 3.80 m, a wall!) and help support naval encyclopedia, just click on the poster.
Purchase

WW2 IJN Submersibles

All Imperial Japanese Submersibles in service during WW2, from the smallest Kaiten to the giant I-400 type. Note it's massive, all these illustrations originals were made at 1/400 scale. So expect a lot of details. This one is the A0 version, you can access to the print version (four times A0, format or 4,76 m x 3,36 m) on this link
.

Purchase

Upcoming Posters

Work in progress: IJN WW2 - The real thing

Work in progress: The Armada (Cold war and Modern 1990-2022)

Work in progress: Regia Marina WW2 - The real thing

This one is 'close to completion' in its first version, that is main ships (cruisers & battleships) with individual camouflage, but the rest, subs, destroyers and torpedo boats, would need a hefty dose of research to find all individual camouflages. Therefore there will be two releases. Note: Since some illustrations has been redone, it is always possible in a distant future that te poster would include profiles of a much larger scale, with 1/350 ships. The same would be made for the USN and Kriegsmarine.

Work in progress: Kriegsmarine - The real thing

This one is about 50% ready. I is special in a way both the Reichsmarine and Plan Z ships are in. However it is likely it would be split into three: A Plan Z poster, one on the Reichsmarine with a different, more usual shape, and one on the actual Kriegsmarine, including 1,1000 U-Boats and dozens of misc. vessels, auxiliary cruisers, flakships etc. The plan Z poster is likely to be completed as the various projected ships are covered by individual articles and fine renditions.

Work in progress: Kaiserliches Marine - The real thing

Another important work, the representation of the whole German Navy in WWI, with vessels dating back to the 1880s, up to 1918 and projects.

Classic Posters

ASW, misc. and mine warfare of the Royal Navy in WW1

Anti-sub warfare, mine warfare, patrol ships and gunboats, WW1. The Royal Navy was not only about big guns battleships, cruisers and destroyers. The hundred of "flower" class ASW sloops notably, really made things difficult for German submarines during the first battle of the Atlantic. This poster could be available print-wise on demand.




The Enlightenment century spanned the entire XVIIIth Century but it also started sooner, at the middle to the end of the XVIIth Century. Defiance towards religion, great scientific essays and discoveries cimented an era of entrepreneurship and knowledge, great ideals which broke completely with a long tradition and society order inherited from the Renaissance, still somewhat marked by Medieval nostalgy. In Ship design, variety of types and families exploded, in all areas, around the world. Many of these exotic ships from far away were discovered and depicted by European explorers, and most have been registered in several books, notably the monumental Encyclopediae by Diderot and Rousseau. The picture is very diverse (and not to scale !), but with mostly (right to left) Eastern, Russian, Scandinavian designs, then European, north and south, Mediterranean, and then Arabic, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian or Philippino ancient ships. Click to see and download the free HD version.

Purchase

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Naval Aviation POSTERS

Fresh & New

Seafire Mark 45, Prototype (and trials carrier HMS Pretoria Castle)


Poster dedicated to the Aichi A6M "zero" vs. its adversaries. Next is awaited a full poster of all variants & liveries of the Catalina, F6F Hellcat and A6M.
Available in greeting cards, postcards and Smartphone/iphone cases in all models.

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Poster dedicated to the Aichi D3A "Val", common 1941-43 IJN dive bomber. See the full article and pictures list there
.



Example of macbook laptop sleeve. Dozens of variants and models possible as well as ipad skins, ipad snap cases, laptop skins, iphone skin and snap cases, soft cases, tough cases, iphone wallet, T-shirts, mouse pade, baseball and dad caps, art, canvas, framed art, metal, photographic print as all scale and effect, postcard and poster, acrylic block, clock, coaster, comforter, duver cover, shower curtain, throw pillow, drawstring bag, print tote bag, mug, cottong tote bag, mask, pin, scarf, tag mug, tarvel mug, water bottle, zipper pouch, greeting card, hardcover journal or spiral notebook...



Poster dedicated to the Mitsubishi A5M, first IJN monoplane fighter. See the full article and pictures list there
.



The full list and poster dedicated to the F4F Wildcat, USN Grumman versions, General Motors versions, and Fleet Air arm Martlet and British Pacific Fleet's Wildcat Mark VI: https://bit.ly/3xZaDIS

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Renaissance Ships

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Web posters (no print):

Featured: Turkish Fleet

Türk Donanmasi, the national Navy of Turkey in the interwar and ww2.

Pixels.com SHOP

Here is pixel.com shop. Like for redbubble above, You can puchase not only prints but also all kind of furniture, including T-shirt, mugs, phone cases, and many more.