Scratchbuilding Model Ships (for the REAL ) Beginner ( Tongue in Cheek)

I find sawdust easier to clean up than messes of other materials.

Shipmodeling has a longer history than any other genre of modeling- simply because ships are older than other vehicles, and there was no hobby industry when people first modeled ships.  It has carried over today- I find more people scratch building ships than any other genre.  As a result, I find scale drawings of ships more easily obtained than any other genre- although aircraft are close.

If you do decide to scratch in wood, there is a further decision- solid hull/bread-and-butter, versus plank on frame/plank on bulkhead.  I advocate solid or b&b, unless you are doing a SOL and want full gun carriages and other detail on lower decks.

I know many ship modelers who brush paint their models.

DON,You are a real jewel. I forgot the rules for the types you mentioned.Did you know that there are many though that DON,T want to brush paint.WHY ? I believe they fear their work will turn out like some of the horror stories you and I have heard and sometimes seen. There is some that think even in wood we just slap them together.How wrong they are ,right?      TANKER-builder

It isn't that hard to do a brush paint job with flat paints.  Doing a GLOSS paint job with brushes is a real art, but I know a couple of guys who can do it.  However, ships are usually flat finish- that is why folks can get away with it.

I have also brush painted WW1 aircraft.  Since the prototypes were brush painted with a sort of transparent paint (dope) they show a lot of brush marks, so brush painting a model can help reproduce that look.

Another connection- when I built my first ship model (wooden kit) as a teenager I was an experienced airplane modeler, so painted it with dope, which I used on wood planes.  Problem was, it was very glossy :-(

Don

I had an uncle that built wood aircraft(mostly R/C) and he would brush paint the planes with dope and  Aerogloss. It took a lot of THIN coats but when finished there were no brush marks or "holidays" on the finish, a real talent I could never duplicate. He eventually went to monocoat and his finishes were perfect, but his Aerogloss paint jobs looked like monocoat. He built the Sterling Missouri in the 1950's and brush painted it with Aerogloss. For some reason the finish was a semi gloss, almost flat, I don't know what he used to tone down the "gloss".

You're right about brush painting with flat paint, I finished a couple of Ideal wood ship kits using Floquil Rail road flats, two coats over a primer, didn't look bad....forget Floquil over plastic, crazed the plastic like a laquer paint. I tried the "barrier" prior to the finish coat, just wasn't the same result as with the wood kits...  

I would rather build from scratch than spend a lot of time trying to correct a bad kit.  In my hands, it is easier and faster.

Paul

Current Project:

paulbudzik.com/.../Enterprise_Scratch.html

They make a "dullcoat" dope.  You can also add talc to dope to "dull" the finish.  Brush painting is an art - lots of thin coats, lay on, lay off, and sanding between coats, then buffing, and you can come up with a gloss so shiny it's like looking in  a mirror.

OMCUSNR

They make a "dullcoat" dope.  You can also add talc to dope to "dull" the finish.  Brush painting is an art - lots of thin coats, lay on, lay off, and sanding between coats, then buffing, and you can come up with a gloss so shiny it's like looking in  a mirror.

Ah yes!  Well do I remember this trick.  When I was a teenager, flat finish model paints were not yet available.  What a marvelous thing they were when they appeared.  Much better than sliced bread.  I kept a can of talcum powder on my paint shelf.

Well,at least you didn,t sneak off with the baby powder.I used to do that until my MA said I had to buy my own for that stuff. AHHH,the memories.Ever paint a model with what you thought were nice paints? Only to find out two weeks later you used artist oils instead of regular paint? It took that plane months to dry.I still have it somewhere too! An old example of what not to do.