Monday 6 December 2010

USN WWII Battleship Basing and Painting (1)

Note to self: So I remember how I did it
Here I am starting the basing process:
  • Card
  • Ships out of packet
  • Filed
  • Washed
  • Under-coated black (good old Games Workshop Chaos Black as it covers well)
  • Scalpel/spatula to create wavy patterns
  • Rather old (see later) packet of DIY flexible filler for the sea carving with the scalpel/spatula. 
Spread away with the DIY flexible gap filler and stick the ships (USS Washington and USS South Dakota) unceremoniously right in the middle of it:


Note the broken Buzz Lightyear toy forlornly waits for attention in the background (I've tried several time bit his gripping hands don't take well to the super glue) 


I dries overnight. Urk, sometimes it does not work as intended  :(

With said scalpel I had spread the flexible filler creating a nice wave pattern (or at least uneven texture to the surface) just I had done many times before, however not a good result as it looked like a cracked Arizona desert floor, baked in the sun.



Yes, too many cracks and it's all flaky, peeling off the card. Did I apply too much filler (it did go on thicker than before)or is the DIY filler stuff getting too old (or even was the heating/temperature too hot in the room, as its winter now)? Who knows, give the filler a good squeeze/mix and apply a fresh (thinner) coat.


Better but not perfect. In fact I give it a touch up layers before I undercoat the sea. Again not perfect but it's on with the painting which covers up most of my concerns and seems pulls it together.

Several paint applications later ...


Next stop Iron Bottom sound!

As I was doing this I found a useful reference web-site for my up and coming US Battleship, CV and Cruiser painting spree scheduled for the winter:

WWII US Navy Paint Scheme Website

For 1/3000 I may give most of the details a miss, but I might at most be inventive/follow the colour of the US Navy decks.

The nights are drawing in but there are plenty of ships to do :)

7 comments:

Tfigs said...

Good Job !

Which colour do you use for the deck ?

I have the same ship to paint (North Carolina).


PS : I have just finished my last Heavy Cruisers..

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Well done with the cruisers they look sweet

The US decks were causing me grief as I literally could not decide which colour to use. For some reason I thought they should be blue but all the photos I saw on the web (1/350 and 1/700 models) had them down as a light tan

Hence I scrambled around to see what was to hand to use:

Layers of
11044 Coffee colour (Anita's Acrylic)
Then a repeat touch-up
Mix in a bit of Games Workshop Desert Yellow (just because I am trying to use it up before it dries up)
Then add a tad of Games Workshop Skull White (again use the gel before it completely dries up) for some highlights

Any paints would do IMHO and all I wanted was a look good six view look from across the table-top, that holds when you get a little closer

Beccas said...

Good job. I think in wartime they were painted blue. When I did mine I decided to do all the battleships with tan decks because it looks a lot better. And I did all my CA's down with blue decks. I found vallejo 898 Dark Sea Blue as a perfect deck colour. I once painted the entire US, Australian and Japanese fleets at Coral Sea. Every single ship in 1/3000. Once you start it becomes hard to stop.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Thanks for the Vallejo 898 Dark Sea Blue tip :)

As you say, once you start it is hard to stop. For me at least it seems more personal painting a ship with a unique quantifiable history than an example of a 'tank'. A 'plane' is slightly more unique, but relatively speaking there were not that many ships in WWII. Thousands, not hundreds of thousands :)

Paul said...

Hey stop the tank bashing!

Great post Geordie, seeing the scale references in the photos helps me visualize the size better.

Well done.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

lol

Tank shave their place in my heart (or rather collection too)

I suppose the Maus was literally one out of two ;)

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

These figures still make me smile

I liked doing them :)