Gloss or Matte for the hull?

Hmm.

 The answer I would give is this ;

 When painting sailing vessels you have to decide on the moment in time you are aiming for .Just home from say , three years at sea . Definitely flat colors .Newly launched after a re-fit , Semi-Gloss .

I mostly build cars and it's such a struggle toget a smooth gloss finish that I'm loathe to weather and "ruin" it even in the name of accuracy. However, I justify it by saying that at some point everything was brand new, even if just for a little while! 

Ken

warshipguy

Don,

Please don't forget that there are modelers who build wood ships for historic accuracy as well!  

Bill

 

Oh, I certainly do not forget that.  I am a replica guy, I paint my wood models rather than stain and varnish them. It is just that I find a higher percentage of folks building for sheer beauty in folks building wooden models.  I find far fewer plastic modelers doing that.  And the manufacturers of the wooden ships encourage that, as they tout the beauty of the hardwoods they furnish in the kit.  I wish they wouldn't-- I much prefer basswood for planking. I sometimes trash those brittle hardwoods that come in the kits and replace it with basswood.

Good points. I guess I am somewhere in the middle between show and authenticity. I haven't built a model ship since I was in high school, mainly have done armor and planes. This model is the 1/96 version and was a gift about twenty years ago, and only now have dug it out, thinking I can give it the attention it deserves. 

Don,

Please don't forget that there are modelers who build wood ships for historic accuracy as well!  

Bill

Good points. I guess I am somewhere in the middle between show and authenticity. I haven't built a model ship since I was in high school, mainly have done armor and planes. This model is the 1/96 version and was a gift about twenty years ago, and only now have dug it out, thinking I can give it the attention it deserves. 

I prefer  satin for a showy ship and flat otherwise. I also only use black on larger scales like 1/64. Otherwise I prefer a flat dark gray, currently my fav is Model master NATO Black.

Back in the day, the Polly Scales Engine Black, Grimy Black, Steam Power Black were the go-to.

Even modern paints chalk and lose their gloss after being in the sun awhile.  Vintage paints did that very quickly.  Unless you want to depict a ship just after painting, a matt or semi-matt is probably more realistic.

However, ship models are a bit different that most other genres of scale models.  There has always been a sizable fraction of model ship builders who model ships to create a beautiful work of art rather than an accurate replica.  This is more common with those building wooden models vs plastic ones, but there is still a faction that builds plastic ships for beauty rather than authenticity.  No right or wrong here, just your motivation for modeling.

I have been building ship models now for over 65 years.  The battle between the two factions was there before I started and undoubtedly will continue after I am gone.  Note too that for modelers building for others, the customer is often looking for room furnishing/decor, and could care less for authenticity, and the customer is always right for a business.