Priming military craft question

I prime with American Tradition Red Primer from the local Lowes hardware store   I use that as the bottom color on most, if not all, of my whole hull ships.   Them mask off the hull bottom and have at it painting the rest.

Another thing to remember is that unlike 1:1 airplanes or armor you are not going to paint the whole thing out of one 5 gallon bucket of paint.  It will take many people, many buckets, many days to do.   Its okay for a scale ship to show some color discontinuities - maybe even add a bit of interest

JMart wrote:

... as well as the revell PT109 boat (THAT one I primed since the plastic was dark green!). Thanks!

Actually the PT109 and other PT boats serving in the SW Pacific were painted various shades of green for camoflage when tied up to the pier during the day.   I usually use whatever paint I have handy.  I've also mixed various colors (by the same mfr, like Testors MM) together to make a primer coat - think of the USS SEATIGER in the movie OPERATION PETTICOAT. 

EdGrune - thanks for the info... I will try that (or similar), and see how the top gray layer looks over the red one (better than a red over gray I think!)

CG Bob - Yes, I did a search in here, got lots of info about the various shades of green (Dark, Tropical, Forest) people use for the PT boat... this "plastic" green was just painful to look at, and would have been difficult (at least to me as a non-expert!) to paint green on green and see any nuances...

I will also try to simply prime light gray testors enamel as usual, very light coat.. then AB more coats as a "final color", maybe add a tad darker spots to give it an uneven look, as suggested... thanks again!

You can prime your ships any color you want, as long as the top coat is gray *chuckles*

Seriously, though, if you're building ships in 1/700 scale and the waterline version to mount them on an ocean base or something similar, a few little subtle hints are all you need. If you're going to mount the full hull ship on a base with brass finials and the whole bit, the general preference is to model it "clean" since it is more along the lines of a presentation model.

To the OP, I use flat white primer if the finish coat is going to be a light color like white or yellow, and gray for just about anything else.  I've tried using a silver undercoat for gloss white finish coats, but found it was too fragile for handling and masking.

I make some exceptions for cars.  For example for my McLaren MP4-13, I used black as the base coat for the silver finish.

Mark

Thanks for all the info... I am planning (for now) not to have waterline ships... dont have the extra space nor the skills to make water!  I will use my light gray lightly (no pun intended), and see what happens... good tip on the white primer for cold colors like yellow... cheers