GHQ Models Forums

Hello all

I have been painting and modeling ships for several years now and as time has passed I have gotten better and better with the details of painting, weathering, etc... My question out there for the rest of you that do a lot of ship painting especially in 1/2400 scale. What type of paint do you use and reasons why? I only have used acrylic (Vallejo) I like the way it flows and goes on. Have recently been thinking of trying enamels (humbrols) I have worked with humbrols before with larger scales. I didnt care for the look and maybe it was my inexperience at the time, but just wanting some ideas and thoughts from other thanks.

Also does anyone know where to get good paint chip sets for world war one era ship painting? I mainly work in this time period.

fullmetaljacket

I have used enamel paints for a very long time. I primarily use Testor's Model Master paints because no one locally carries Humbrol paints. The Humbrol paints are excellent and when I was doing a lot more historical figure painting they seemed to have all the colors I needed. When the paints are well shaken (...or stirred) they go on very smooth no matter what size brush I use. As soon as I get a compressor I will try my hand at airbrushing. The enamel paints also mix well to make custom colors. You will need brush cleaner (Thinner) and also some of the paints have a bit of an odor to them

As for links to paint chips, here is what I have found so far:
http://german-navy.tripod.com/sms_paint-overview.htm

https://sites.google.com/a/coldie.net/t ... I-Warships

Other references:
Naval Camouflage 1914 - 1945 (Naval Institute Press)

Warship Perspectives Camouflage Volume One thru Volume Four by Alan Raven
(References many of the same colors used on WW1 ships, Vol. 1 has paint chips on the back cover)

I hope this helps.

I have been using the White Ensign enamel paints. They have a very wide range of exact colours for the major WW2 navies, and a smaller range for WW1. The prices are very good, and shipping from the U.K. is reasonable. My last order arrived in about 10 days.

One warning is that they seem to be letting some of their catalog items run down. They only have a few of the Regia Marina colours left, and have indicated they won't be carrying those items in future.

My major complaint about enamel paints is the wastage on paint brushes - the paints and brush clearners seem to be a little hard on the brushes, so I'm always on the lookout for brush sales at Michaels.

Here's a few reference websites on colour schemes I've found:

http://smmlonline.com/articles/kriegsma ... arine.html

http://www.gwpda.org/naval/s1200000.htm

http://german-navy.tripod.com/sms_paint-overview.htm

http://home.att.net/~shipmodelfaq/smf-q046.html

There is also a lot of paint scheme information on the White Ensign Models website.

This helps out a lot all appreciate it very much. I know for most people they dont care or really even wonder about paint schemes. Its the perfectionist in me almost to the point that i get models done and i dont want to use them for gaming, but on the other hand i dont just want to set them up on a shelf.

I will post some pictures tonight.

fullmetaljacket

I've been painting 2400 scale ships for some time, particularly since I retired. I use WEM enamels almost exclusively; they are accurate as to color (not much WWI, though), but quality can vary. They do, for example, have a U.S. WWI "slate" color.

For general info on paints, camouflage, etc. you might contact Snyder & Short, up nesr Sacramento, CA I buy nearly everything from them. They have WWII color chips, WEM paints, many ship books; probably still have the four Alan Raven WWII British Navy camouflage books. Randy Short is very interested in camouflage colors and patterns, and even sometimes puts a new sketch of a camo pattern in one of his color chip books.

I don't have their web address at hand, but I would imagine you could easily track it down by enterning "Snyder & Short." If you can't, let me know & I'll look it up for you.

Mikee

PS:

I've been using WEM Hellgrau 50 (light grey) and Dunkelgrau 51 (medium grey) for the German upper works and hull, respectively. Although they are WWII colors, it seems to me that they will work OK for WWI. For the British, I use WEM AP 507B medium grey. Their AP507A (dark grey) seems to be too dark for me. For the Russian WWI ships, I don't try & be accurate, but use the WEM modern light blue-greys. (I think their ships were dark grey in WWI, but I'm not sure.) Don't know what I'll use, if GHQ produces any French or Italian WWI ships (I hope! I hope!), but would likely use the Japanese WWII colors on Japanese WWIships. On the other hand, WEM has four different Japanese dark greys, which would confuse the issue.

Mikee

I suspect there isn't much point in getting too carried away with chasing the right colours (but I understand... I do it too). In the case of the RN, the ships started the war in dark grey, but as the war wore on the pigments started to get harder to come by so the grey got lighter. I used AP507B (or something close) as well. WEM do the AP507, but I've found WEM to be a little inconsistent and quite hard work. So I think I used a close Humbrol colour (141 rings a bell).

I also imagine that the paint of the time didn't last too well at sea, so faded.

Mike

Mikee and all the others thanks a ton for all the information. I still wish we all could get together one weekend and share ideas and painting techinques that would be worth a fortune if we all lived closer and had the time. Like i always say when you are young you have all the time in the world to game, but no money. then one gets older and you have the money but no time to enjoy the hobby.

One last question for you old salty sea dogs. What color do most of you paint the decks? I know from research that some where wooden others more a metal looking greay.

fullmetaljacket

White Ensign makes a Deck Teak colour that I use as a default for British and Italian ships. I have an old Humbrol tin of HN4 Deck Teak from the '80s which I use for German ships, since it is a little darker than the WEM teak and with a bit of a greenish tinge. The Germans tended to use darker wood like fir. US WW2 ships often used 20B Deck Blue, which you can get in Floquil or WEM.

I tried ordering a tin of Corticene colour from WEM for the upper decks, but they don't carry that any more. You could substitute a chocolately brown colour from Humbrol. WEM has two Japanese deck colours - a Deck Tan for main decks and a Linoleum for upper decks. The Linoleum could be used for any reddish upper deck in other navies.

Some of the camouflage patterns had the regular hull colours painted on the decks as well - if you have access to reference books that is worth checking out before deciding on your paint scheme. Even in those cases, the upper decks were often a brown or reddish colour depending on the kind of surface used.

Here is some pictures of stuff i have painted and done of the last few years some of the pictures are not the clearest, but i will post some of the newer stuff as i complete them. I'm almost done with all the westfallen class World War one BB's. Hope you all enjoy.

fullmetaljacket

http://picasaweb.google.com/fullmetal2010/Ships#

Ok now that i got a ton of information on schemes for world war one and paints to use, thanks all for the information.

Next question is does anyone out there paint in acyrlics for there 1/2400 navies? IF so please reply and give me your thoughts on colors (brands to use). From my research and using paints. I have found vallejio is so far the best, but have noticed tamiaya XF series has several great colors to. Plus i really like the way Tamiaya paint flows.

One of the best reasons i like using acrylics is the ease of cleaning up the brushes honestly. I have found at a local store near me they have several items to help clean and take long term care of ones brushes. I dont know if i can name the store so i wont on here, but that is one thing that in recent years i hated spending money on was brushes all the time. So, i started taking a lot better care of them and in the long run it pays off.

fullmetaljacket