Thanks for the comments.
Batavia is an excellent kit in many respects, well designed and nicely molded. There are some superb details, especially in the sculpture. Its also molded on both sides of the hull, allowing for full interior detail above decks. The hull planking is smooth, so the wood effects require a specific method.
The method is simple, and here it is, using acrylics:
First, paint the hull in a wood color base. I used Testor's "wood."
Then, apply a thin wash of black to darken the color and highlight details such as the wales and so on. The wash will soak into the flat "wood" color and become a fixed aspect of the undercoat (you will see why in step four).
Then, apply a thinned wash of artist's acrylic transparent burnt umber - I think I use Liquitex from the art department of my local hardware store. This will give the "body" of the wood and deepen it for the "tarred wood" look.
Now for the fun part. With a wide brush, give a wash of common household rubbing alcohol and let it sit for a minute or so. Then take a somewhat wide, used, chisel brush, and brush the hull sides in the direction of the planks. This will scoot the transparent burnt umber around on the surface without affecting the "wood" and tinting black coats below. It will also give the effect of planking and grain on a solid, smooth, plastic surface.
Finally, wait till dry and touch up where desired with thinned black or burnt umber, and when dry again, a wash if needed of the alcohol to kill any sheen (dont brush it around, though, just one quick wash on and let it dry).
This method is impressionistic, and as you can see from the photos, looks best when seen from a few feet away, which is, I think, how most of us look at a model. Its a good idea to test this out on a practice model or maybe the ship's barge to see how it works and get the hang of it.
There are a few other things: paint the underwater hull and mask off first, and I made "rivits" and "treenails" from a permanent ink marker onto the hull at step two. I also marked off the gunport hinges but the ink wiped away during the process, so I have to re-mark them. Batavia has three open gunports on each side: I closed some off for a different look, with two open on one side, one on the other. The gunport lids are painted the same way, and I used natural "wood" for the interiors, as contemporary paintings show both red and unpainted lids at this time.
The interior of the hull is done the same way.
The upper works are painted light blue and will get a wash of thinned black to highlight the clinker construction, and perhaps a wash of burnt umber to tone down the blue color. The rails are based on a Texel diorama model, with the lower moldings in ochre yellow, the upper in dark blue-grey. I wanted to "lower" the height of the stern castle and this is a visual trick that works well.
The carved work is polychromed based on evidence from Wasa, and I chose less elaborate colors that would be more suitable for a merchant ship. There is more to do - beards for the men on the gallery sides, and so on. The mermen on the ship have blue-green bodies with red tails, based on a Dutch painting. The sides of the taffrail are carved but the model's detail is kind of spotty here, so its going to be giving the illusion of carved work using different colors. I'm dreading this.
Rick, this was in the stash, next to a Wasa. Its sort of practice for Wasa because Wasa is all tarred wood, including the underwater hull (no evidence from the actual ship survives for whiting, and operating in Baltic waters perhaps not thought necessary). The upperworks, with rich red clinker work and tons of carvings in different colors, are going to be a real task.
The real treat here was to try out the Artitec method used in painting the Texel Diorama models, modified for acrylics. I have one comment here that could be helpful, since Batavia is a smaller scale than the Artitec models - Artitec has the entire hull, sculptures and all, done up in the wood color, which tones down all the painted work applied over it beautifully. But in smaller scales, it's better to confine the wood base to those parts of the ship that will be seen as wood, and avoid any extra layers of paint on the tiny sculptures. Learned this from experience. Yup.
Julian, those photos of the replica have been invaluable. Just to see the actual ship has allowed me to undersrand what's being represented on the model, and how the effects of weather and wear tone the ship over time. There are have been many times I looked at a specific sculpture detail to understand what the model's tiny blob of plastic was representing. This was especially valuable for the figures which flank the stern windows, and along the gallery sides. Thank you very much for posting them.
Cheers,
Jim