How do you paint your ships

Ships models are often multi media, so priming is in order. Especially if you use acrylic paints, priming is a necessity. Since I only build ships on occasion, I usually use an appropriate color primer. I used Tamiya white liquid surface primer on a Schnellboot that was going to be white once painted, and gray Humbrol primer on some U-Boats and a FFG that I have had sidelined for far too long. I’m sure that you could blackbase with a black primer if you prefer that technique as well.

stikpusher

Ships models are often multi media, so priming is in order. Especially if you use acrylic paints, priming is a necessity. Since I only build ships on occasion, I usually use an appropriate color primer. I used Tamiya white liquid surface primer on a Schnellboot that was going to be white once painted, and gray Humbrol primer on some U-Boats and a FFG that I have had sidelined for far too long. I’m sure that you could blackbase with a black primer if you prefer that technique as well.

 

Well I’m not to sure at times, some of the kits i want to or at least some of the parts. I watched a YouTube video and the guy didn’t prime below the sea line and just painted it hull red like a crazy man. So i wasn’t sure, My strategy and line of thinking was maybe primer black for the below the sea line part. Then at the waterline do a base coat white and outline anything with black. I guess a reverse shadowing effect but I’m not sure if it would have the same effect or unintended consequences.

JLavender

I prime all of my ships with black primer and slowly build up the color coat in thin layers. This gives the model a rich color and a lot of depth.

 

I may try that method as well. I built my first ship a few months ago and it was quite fun. I made the mistake of trying to paint it after it was completely built and I realized this isn’t like armor, I need to paint in phases. So it’s a learning process 

I always prime, but the color may vary with the ship.  Many freshwater ships have a bottom paint that is essentially iron oxide. I just use red (iron oxide) primer on those and mask off the bottom.  For seagoing ships I just use my regular gray primer.

I don't bother with shading.  I paint the hull first, main deck second (masking off superstructure attachment areas) next.  Then I paint superstructure assemblies when they are ready to attach.  I put on most PE last and paint them last if I have not already painted them on fret. 

Following the above, plan on a lot of back-and-forth.

Don Stauffer

I always prime, but the color may vary with the ship.  Many freshwater ships have a bottom paint that is essentially iron oxide. I just use red (iron oxide) primer on those and mask off the bottom.  For seagoing ships I just use my regular gray primer.

I don't bother with shading.  I paint the hull first, main deck second (masking off superstructure attachment areas) next.  Then I paint superstructure assemblies when they are ready to attach.  I put on most PE last and paint them last if I have not already painted them on fret. 

 

 

I think this is going to be my method, I have a trumpeter Z-25 destroyer that I’m intermittently working on. My plan is to build and paint in phases. I think I’m gonna try shading on the deck and some of the port holes / structures but not positive yet. my next project is a USS hornet with B-25s so I’m just trying to do this right so it doesn’t get boogered up. I think I’m gonna do a primer grey for below the sea line like you do.

I typically paint the hull and hull camo, if any, first by black basing. I then work on the deck and superstructure subassemblies a separate parts, black basing and camo as I go, even so far as adding PE and rigging if possible. I recently black based and entire Spruance class including PE and the painted the deck and superstructure without masking as an experiment for a new technique. I was pleased with the result and will try it again on a Perry class I'm completing but I wouldn’t recommend it if you're not confident with your AB. I have heard, I think the credit goes to GM, that you build ships from the bottom up and inside out.

My recommendation, for what it's worth, is black base, hull first, deck, mask and paint, complete and paint superstructures as much as possible before attaching, then finish with the small parts like small boats and rigging etc.

Ships are a completely different animal than other subjects and assemble quite differently than armor.

I always prime everything. On the sprues, and touch up after removal from same. Then finish color of sub assemblies, individual parts, whatever makes the most sense.

One thing I do recommend, and I guess this falls within the scope of painting, is to get the model onto a base ASAP. To state the obvious, ships by nature don't sit on the ground, so they need to be on a base to be stable and level.

I usually glue the basics of the hull together, then putty and clean it up. I leave off the add on stuff like anchors and screws until later, but I get the main hull done.

I prime it and put it on a temporary base. Mark the waterline. Mask the same above it.

Remove from base, paint bottom color. remove mask.

Back on the base. Mask from the waterline down. Paint freeboard color. Remove mask.

If it has one, mask top of boot stripe at waterline. Mark bottom of boot stripe. Important note- boot stripes or toppings are NOT a constant width on the surface of the hull. They have a level upper edge and a level lower edge which are constant in dimension in the VERTICAL, not on the surface of the ship. This can only be marked correctly with the model on a base.

Now, the next step depends on the shape of the hull, but almost always it's time to take the ship off again and mask the bottom edge of the stripe. Paint black. 

Now it can be mounted onto a more permanent finished base if you want.

A little bit about bases. I make a temporary one (grab from a pile of them) that allows me to lay the model on it's side without damaging any detail. 

If the model is small, you can use your finished base and cover it until the end.

I tend to keep the model on that until I amd working from the deck up. Then I'll go to a finished base.

And as for the sequence of the build being bottom-up, inside-out; I learned that from one of the ship modelers here like Ed Grune, Bill Morrison or Al Ross I think.

Bill

GMorrison

I always prime everything. On the sprues, and touch up after removal from same. Then finish color of sub assemblies, individual parts, whatever makes the most sense.

One thing I do recommend, and I guess this falls within the scope of painting, is to get the model onto a base ASAP. To state the obvious, ships by nature don't sit on the ground, so they need to be on a base to be stable and level.

I usually glue the basics of the hull together, then putty and clean it up. I leave off the add on stuff like anchors and screws until later, but I get the main hull done.

I prime it and put it on a temporary base. Mark the waterline. Mask the same above it.

Remove from base, paint bottom color. remove mask.

Back on the base. Mask from the waterline down. Paint freeboard color. Remove mask.

If it has one, mask top of boot stripe at waterline. Mark bottom of boot stripe. Important note- boot stripes or toppings are NOT a constant width on the surface of the hull. They have a level upper edge and a level lower edge which are constant in dimension in the VERTICAL, not on the surface of the ship. This can only be marked correctly with the model on a base.

Now, the next step depends on the shape of the hull, but almost always it's time to take the ship off again and mask the bottom edge of the stripe. Paint black. 

Now it can be mounted onto a more permanent finished base if you want.

A little bit about bases. I make a temporary one (grab from a pile of them) that allows me to lay the model on it's side without damaging any detail. 

If the model is small, you can use your finished base and cover it until the end.

I tend to keep the model on that until I amd working from the deck up. Then I'll go to a finished base.

 

And as for the sequence of the build being bottom-up, inside-out; I learned that from one of the ship modelers here like Ed Grune, Bill Morrison or Al Ross I think.

 

Bill

 

 

This is a lot of good information that I never considered. What is the best way for finding the waterline, how would I find it? Is it where the hull and the bottom of the ship meet on the kit?

Yes. Sometimes it's not quite accurate, but that matters more on bigger models. You can look up the draft of a Z, do the scale math and double check, but unless its way off its ok to go with that. 

To mount the model on a base, there's a number of ways. I'll just try to explain my preference.

For a really big ship like a battleship, some folks like to set it down on a row of crossways wood strips that sort of look like a drydock, although they don't. It gives the thing some gravity. otherwise the usual method is to place it on two or three pedestals. For a Z, two will be fine.

Decide where you'd like those to be. You'll want to pick locations more towards the front/aft center because that part of the bottom of the model will be flat and level.

I like to space them evenly in from bow and stern, say 1/4 of the way back and 1/4 of the way forward. Or a little tighter. Eyeball it.

Mark the centers of those locations on the bottom. Drill small holes. Be careful here because if the hull is in two halves, it might split.

Get a piece of 1x pine or whatever you have. Lay out those two holes on it on the centerline and drill holes larger than the screws or bolts you plan to use for mounting. Best to countersink them a little on the bottom.

Make sure the base is longer and wider than the ship. You can add an upturned end if you want, like I show but it's up to you. It does let you lay the model on it's side on the bench without busting stuff off.

Now you can either epoxy nuts into the hull at your two holes, or glue soft wood blocks over them. I prefer the blocks as nuts sometimes break loose when inconvenient.

Get wood screws long enough to go through the base, through the pedestals and into the hull enough to engage the blocks. Pilot drill the blocks.

Pedestals? There's all kinds of stuff available. There are nice solid ones, but I don't have a lathe and am not much at drilling and tapping holes. I prefer short pieces of tubing, actually a lamp part called a nipple. Fun to rummage through the stuff at the hardware store. If you find ones you like, get a number of sets.

Now you can mount the hull. I make sure it all works before I glue the deck on. After than there's no real going back. If you've already glued the deck on, there are ways to resolve that.

GMorrison

Yes. Sometimes it's not quite accurate, but that matters more on bigger models. You can look up the draft of a Z, do the scale math and double check, but unless its way off its ok to go with that. 

To mount the model on a base, there's a number of ways. I'll just try to explain my preference.

For a really big ship like a battleship, some folks like to set it down on a row of crossways wood strips that sort of look like a drydock, although they don't. It gives the thing some gravity. otherwise the usual method is to place it on two or three pedestals. For a Z, two will be fine.

Decide where you'd like those to be. You'll want to pick locations more towards the front/aft center because that part of the bottom of the model will be flat and level.

I like to space them evenly in from bow and stern, say 1/4 of the way back and 1/4 of the way forward. Or a little tighter. Eyeball it.

Mark the centers of those locations on the bottom. Drill small holes. Be careful here because if the hull is in two halves, it might split.

Get a piece of 1x pine or whatever you have. Lay out those two holes on it on the centerline and drill holes larger than the screws or bolts you plan to use for mounting. Best to countersink them a little on the bottom.

Make sure the base is longer and wider than the ship. You can add an upturned end if you want, like I show but it's up to you. It does let you lay the model on it's side on the bench without busting stuff off.

Now you can either epoxy nuts into the hull at your two holes, or glue soft wood blocks over them. I prefer the blocks as nuts sometimes break loose when inconvenient.

Get wood screws long enough to go through the base, through the pedestals and into the hull enough to engage the blocks. Pilot drill the blocks.

Pedestals? There's all kinds of stuff available. There are nice solid ones, but I don't have a lathe and am not much at drilling and tapping holes. I prefer short pieces of tubing, actually a lamp part called a nipple. Fun to rummage through the stuff at the hardware store. If you find ones you like, get a number of sets.

Now you can mount the hull. I make sure it all works before I glue the deck on. After than there's no real going back. If you've already glued the deck on, there are ways to resolve that.

 

 

I forgot to ask what’s a good vase in my last question but you answered it. Thank you, you’re a wealth of information, i didn’t realize this side of the hobby was a completely different beast then armor!

Tankluver

What is the best way for finding the waterline, how would I find it? Is it where the hull and the bottom of the ship meet on the kit?

Well, it's almost never where the kit splits the hull.  That's typically predicated by the limits of mould making.

Ok, so, how then?  Fair question.

Unlike aror modeling, where the kit is generally reasonably accurate, ship models are very often only generally accurate.  The further back in time, the less precise the kits generally are, too.

So, we in the ship modeling community live and die by research.  We buy plans and compare them to our reference photos and other data.  We often get more than one set of plans, too.  (This is exponentially true in the wooden ship world.)

Example:  USN built right at a thousand Fletcher class destroyers.  So, they are all alike, right?  Nope, there are actually six (basic) variants that are as visually different as large hatch Shermans are to small; or 3 piece to cast transmission covers.  Then, there are variations ship, by ship, and era by era.

So, we arm our selves with photos and plans.  Which lets us scale a value from a known point, like the fore foot.  We also can pick a point, say, the mid point, and we can measure up from there.

If we have followed Bill's excellent advise and installed a base.  From that we can shim that base until the eel on the kit aproximates the line on our plans (it might very well be close enough, too).  Since we have that aligned, we can now align the water line (or water lines if the ship has a boot top, as USN vessels all do).

Note that our having plans is very helpful when the ship's keel is not parallel to the waterline, as can be the case (if more in smaller craft).

The boot stripe may or may not have parallel top and bottom edges, so you need to check references.  On USCG vessels, the top edge of the boot stripe is not parallel to the water line, but is higher at the bow than the stern.  The USCG has a formula for determining the width of the boot stripe at amidships based on the hull length.  The lower edge of the boot stripe is the light load waterline.  The upper edge will be above the full load waterline.  Freeboard will be measured from the full load waterline.  For vessels over 150 feet in length, the amidships distance is 1/8 of the freeboard.  For vessels between 65 and 150 feet long, the amidships distance is 1/6 of the freeboard.  For vessels less than 65 feet, the amidships distance is 1/4 of the freeboard.  The upper edge at the bow will be 1.33 times the amidships distance.  The upper edge at the stern will be 0.66 times the amidships distance.  

CG Bob

 

The boot stripe may or may not have parallel top and bottom edges, so you need to check references.  On USCG vessels, the top edge of the boot stripe is not parallel to the water line, but is higher at the bow than the stern.  The USCG has a formula for determining the width of the boot stripe at amidships based on the hull length.  The lower edge of the boot stripe is the light load waterline.  The upper edge will be above the full load waterline.  Freeboard will be measured from the full load waterline.  For vessels over 150 feet in length, the amidships distance is 1/8 of the freeboard.  For vessels between 65 and 150 feet long, the amidships distance is 1/6 of the freeboard.  For vessels less than 65 feet, the amidships distance is 1/4 of the freeboard.  The upper edge at the bow will be 1.33 times the amidships distance.  The upper edge at the stern will be 0.66 times the amidships distance.  

 

 

One last thing I forgot to mention above.  Many ship plans call out for the props to be painted gold or brass colored.  Large warships never used brass for the props.  They used to be bronze.  Modern warships are machined from steel alloys and can appear various color.

I believe Tamiya now makes a bronze color.  I have not used it yet, so don't know how good it is.  I start with copper color (Testors enamel), then a very light overcoat of gloss brown-just to tint the copper brown.  Then I very lightly drybrush on some olive drab for a petina in spots.

Oh Goody;

    Here's how I do it. Like many others I prime it first. Usually Rusteoleum Hazy grey( that's what I call it.) Then the Red ,Green or Blue bottom.Then lastly, Before, the upper work, the Boot stripe.

 I used to use Testors Model Master Rust for the Bottoms. Now with the brand unavailable, I paint them Burnt Brick red from A gamer type paint set.

 I hate using acrylics ,But,guess I'll have get used to them. Now I will say this about them. After I have primed and sanded ( Wet) with 800 or finer paper, the Acrylic doesn't chip or peel off.

I always prime with Tamiya aerosol fine grey primer. I decant it into a bottle and spray it on with the airbrush.

Then, spray a loosely defined swath of black, I use White ensign enamels C02, where the boot top will be, over spraying the edges to be sure I have enough coverage.

Next, after the black is thoroughly dry, I  mask over the black to define the boot top. I use 3M vinyl 1/8" or 1/4" wide tape like is used at auto body shops. I think Tamiya has a vinyl tape now too. This stuff conforms to compound curves very well, lays down nice without "popping up" in areas that have severe bends, like the bow and stern. I fill in any gaps between the vinyl tape with regular Tamiya tape.

Then I spray the bottom. I use White ensign US14  Norfolk 65A anti-fouling red.

When that is thoroughly dry, Carry the masking down over the bottom with Tamiya tape and spray the hull from the boot top up with whatever gray you are using depending on the era. 

After that dries, peel off the various layers of masking and, Viola, it's done. 

Then mask off to the top edge of the hull and spray the decks.

EJ

Don Stauffer

One last thing I forgot to mention above.  Many ship plans call out for the props to be painted gold or brass colored.  Large warships never used brass for the props.  They used to be bronze.  Modern warships are machined from steel alloys and can appear various color.

Right. I have color photos of ESSEX hull and screws when she was in drydock at Brooklyn. They were a brownish metallic color, much like you see on bronze statues in parks, except along the outboard edges of the blades where the water turbulance was the highest. There it was slightly lighter in color.

EJ

ejhammer

I always prime with Tamiya aerosol fine grey primer. I decant it into a bottle and spray it on with the airbrush.

Then, spray a loosely defined swath of black, I use White ensign enamels C02, where the boot top will be, over spraying the edges to be sure I have enough coverage.

Next, after the black is thoroughly dry, I  mask over the black to define the boot top. I use 3M vinyl 1/8" or 1/4" wide tape like is used at auto body shops. I think Tamiya has a vinyl tape now too. This stuff conforms to compound curves very well, lays down nice without "popping up" in areas that have severe bends, like the bow and stern. I fill in any gaps between the vinyl tape with regular Tamiya tape.

Then I spray the bottom. I use White ensign US14  Norfolk 65A anti-fouling red.

When that is thoroughly dry, Carry the masking down over the bottom with Tamiya tape and spray the hull from the boot top up with whatever gray you are using depending on the era. 

After that dries, peel off the various layers of masking and, Viola, it's done. 

Then mask off to the top edge of the hull and spray the decks.

EJ

 

This looks interesting, I’ve been going over it in my head how to paint the waterline and i was thinking maybe I’ll measure one out but the way you did it makes more sense in my mind. I need painters tape, imncurrently using the tamiya(?) thin yellow masking tape Which works but ive had minor issues with it in the past. This looks amazing by the way and looks real beautiful especially where the propellers and props are I can see the shadowing but it’s not to much.

I usually wash Parts with mild soapy water to get rid of Mould Release Agents then paint over the bare Plastic so I do not lose any Hull Detail, especially when building 700 Scale Ships......Cheers Mark

I'm building my first 1:350 model (Tsarevitch -cut down to waterline) and found the tip about using a base - even a temporary one very useful. After thinking about how to do it I put masking tape on the hull bottom, put a little PVA on the outer surface of the tape and glued it all to a plywood offcut. 

I have yet to discover how easy it will be to remove, but not anticipating a big problem.

Alan Smith

-cut down to waterline) and found the tip about using a base - even a temporary one very useful.

Check how any turrets attach.  If they use a "T" pin through a hole i nthe hull, a wood screw with a washer will hold the hull down on a temporary base.

Alternately, you can find a spot where superscructure will leave enough space to run a screw down into a base.

Alternately, if you fit a sheet styrene "base plate" in at the waterline, you can use a bolt with washers and a nut to hold those bolts to that base that the hull is then glued to.

That latter has the virtue of being able to get "under" the line of the base with an airbrush or the like.

Your Mileage May Vary.

CapnMac82!

 Just a thought. On my larger ships fastened to a base. I will find a spot in the Superstructure that will hide a long bolt then drill out carefully the levels.This results in lone recessed washer and nut in the base holding the ship down. When you put the felt on the bottom(Don't want to scar the furniture) Nothing is in the way to sit flat and beautiful!

Looking at your photos!

       Don't you just love that "Sheer' line.(The line and curve of the deck from (Bow to Stern) Most noticeable in Photo 5!

Tankluver

Anything helps and thank you in advance!

Many of us here will advocated for builing in sub assemblies. 

Especially given the complexity of painting decks and verticals differently.

The "armor model style" of build-it-all then paint just does not work quite so well.  Especially given how much PE "we" often expect to install (all of which is too fussy and soft to be anywhere near clumsy human fingers, ever, once installed).

You are likely going to need a lot of masking material.  Often you will want to slice that masking into dozens of small squares and/or wedges, some as small as 5x5 mm.

Be aware that some ships will have a "scum stripe" at the base of vertical ship structures which might be washed by rolling seas.  The stripe is typically about 6" high and will be a blackish or very dark gray color (for many USN ships it's Deck Gray).  This will be found on the main deck and to 01 (0100 in WWII) superstructure deck (but you need reliable refernce photos).

Capnmac82!

        I certainly have your back on this one. It was always something our Bos'n Mate first class would get on the guys about."Get that aweful stain off there afore we make port" "Got that". That's what paint is for I guess. We only painted stuff in the Engineering spaces after yard time. Just so everything matched.