"Painting & Decaling Shapeways 1/1800 Hiryu" Topic

Howdy y'all, I bought a Hiryu last Christmas from Shapewaysand I had a few questions for those who havepainted one up. I have all the required paints for painting Hiryu in her Midway scheme I also have red center and white surround hinomaru decal for the flight deck. What has me stymied is the vertical white deck stripes and the white multidirectional burst on the forward end of the flight deck. I know I can use indvidual narrow white stripe decals for the deck but as for the Fore end marking I haven't a clue. Help!

If you have a steady hand you could just try painting white stripes on the deck. I pencil them in lightly first with a ruler to get them straight. Maybe this sounds funny, but I've found that with practice it works fairly well. (I paint the deck black first, pulling all my brustrokes in the direction of the planking, then pencil in where I want marks, paint them in the appropriate color, touch up, and paint the deck color on in the direction of the planking. Once that's all done if you drybrush across your brush strokes you can get credible planks even on a flat deck. Optionally, you can leave a hairline of black around the stripes to give them a little additional definition. This sounds silly, but I find it works. (Small details are often exaggerated at gaming scales.) And viewers are quite forgiving of small imperfections, particularly at table distance.

Keep in mind, the models pictured are about three inches long (yours will be a little larger), this the photo you see is most probably larger than actual size. (And I've since corrected the stripes on Hiryu's deck so that they continue through the hinomaru, but you get the idea.)

From whom are you buying the miniature? I've found Shapeways a nice way to go. I wish you luck.