lowrytim
Thanks CapnMac, So the red bottom paint actually has a function. Great info. I may have mentioned that this is my first ship, so not really up to speed on this area.
Ah, well, you may have to be careful then--ship modeling has a very deep end (no pun intended).
There is a huge range of after-market products for ship kits. A person can easily spend the kit's msrp again on a/m stuff.
Which is further complicated by the fact that ships are not like armor or aircraft or cars. Those are built in hundreds, thousands each; a large run of a given ship type is a dozen or so.
Consider: In the century that USN built battleships, they only built 60-someodd. Even the ones built to a single pattern, 3, or, 4, or 5 at a time each differed, and significantly so. The Fletcher-class destroyer was built in 6 or 8 different shipyards, and in about six iterations of fit. You can spot differences in funnel shape, and the like, which stayed unique through the lifespan of the ship. DD-554 USS Boyd looked significantly different in 1969 when she transferred to the Turkish navy than when she was built by Bethlehem San Pedro in 1942.
So, you ought, at least, go to google images and look there at the Tico photos. That will give you a starting point. Then, you can think about if you want to build CG-47, or one of her 26 similar sisters. (And there are difference between the BIW and Ingalis-built ships, not quite calling a Camaro a trans-am, more trans am versus IROC t/a.)
have fun. Any questions, keep asking.
Just remembered that there are a/m decals for Tico non-skid, which can save you some masking.