"Help Painting 1/2400 WTJ Pre-Dreadnoughts" Topic

All,
Need some help and painting tips for 1/2400 WTJ pre-dreads.

I saw tbeard1999's tutorial but I'm not sure that will work as well for ships that are half the size of WW2 BBs.

I tried hand painting one pre-dread but I was less than satisfied with the outcome. I think it may be due to age and I cant hold my hand as steady anymore.

I used water downed Gesso w/ little bit of alcohol as primer and acrylic paint with a 10/0 spotter brush.

Any thoughts and ideas would be greatly appreciated. I am also drafting a workbench article to describe my work for TMP readers.

-ZG

I prime with Testors acrylic gray primer, then paint the overall gray. I then cut in the deck color and boats, making the inevitable touching up. Then I do the black trim. The main trick is to go over the whole model in 1/10ish diluted black. The thin liquid settles into and around the detail accentuating it. I base my ships. I paint a deep blue/black color, then dry brush ivory along the cutwater, sides and wake. When dry I use a 1/10ish diluted blue to wash over the ivory. That's my drill, but I'd contact TMP'er Foxbat. That boy definitely has his wired tight. His stuff is a couple of cuts above mine, even without the kit-bashed masts.

TMP link

Thanks, KPinder.

Some of my ships of that era has black hulls, so does that affect the technique?

I also tried to put masts, but ended up breaking a mast off the WTJ model.

I am basing mine on clear acrylic bases from Litko. Painting the bow wave and wake, that way I can use whatever game mat and it will blend.

-ZG

Is using a wash the way to go on 3D printed models? I'd have thought it would pick out the manufacturing artifacts a bit much.

TMP bug lost entire post; will try to reconstruct… MH

Mark,
1.) I mounted my ships onto popsicle sticks with a small bit of blue tack. I will try the raising the work surface up and bracing my arms against the work surface.
2.) Check. I have an Ott lite.
3.) Check. As you surmised, my eyesight is not so good either.
4.) What is the optimal consistency? How would you describe that consistency? Like milk? Like water? Like syrup?
5.) What about the deck? And the nooks and crannies? And any thoughts on the color order to paint? Usually I try to go from light to dark, but I ran into trouble after painting the lifeboats.

Perhaps, I can airbrush a light gloss coat to even out the surface irregularities, then use the wash, then coat with clear flat coat, as described by tbeard1999.

Thanks again for your insight, and would appreciate any further thoughts and comments.

@KPinder, no response from Foxbat yet.

-ZG

Here is my reconstruction of the lost post:

ZG:

Here's what I do to help with precision brush painting:

1) Raise part of the work surface up to about neck level. I do this via a cardboard box on the workbench, or sometimes lower myself using a small (child's) chair. Brace your hands against this work surface to steady them.

2) Use bright adjustable lighting. I use a Luxo adjustable desk lamp.

3) Use magnification. I use "Opticaid" clip-on glasses magnifiers bought from Brookstone decades ago. These days, they seem to be available from Amazon, Sears, etc. link Note that there also seems to be a more expensive type called "Optic Aid", which may be a different company. "Optivisor" is more expensive yet. You do want to avoid optical distortion for physical modelmaking, although this matters less for painting.

4) Keep the paint at the optimum consistency. You want one-coat coverage, but you also want predictable flow off the brush. You need to experiment on this, and them try to maintain this consistency. I sometimes use small flat plastic lidded boxes, to protect my "palette" from excessive evaporation.

5) Paint the decks after the hull and superstructure. I do the majority of the deck surface by going in "from the side" with an adequately wet brush. Then come down from the top with a 000 to 00000 brush for any hidden areas, which often requires some back-and-forth touch up.

6) Use good-quality sable brushes.

BTW, I also would be concerned about using ink wash on FUD, given the "grain" it sometimes has. I haven't tried it though, so YMMV.

Mark

In re: painting black hulls, paint full strength black, then dry brush with a lighter color to pull up the detail. I used to use a medium gray but I lately use a gray green. What I prefer is no longer in production, but the closest approximations are:

Vallejo 924 Russian Uniform
Vallejo Cayman Green
Vallejo German dark camo green
Citadel Catachan Green

None of them are quite right. The best example if the color I try to go for is:

auction

I wouldn't try to do masts in anything besides steel or brass wire. Remove any existing masts. Get a pin vise and some very fine drill bits. Drill out holes for the mast and glue in the metal pin. In a pinch thin paper clip wire works OK.

I have only seen a few 3d ship models up close. They were WTJs and they seemed to me that they had fewer "artifacts" than lead equivalents.

@Mark, thanks for the clarification.
@KPinder, I tried to use wire for masts, .010 and 015, to be exact. I was using a #72 wire drill bit and pin vise; when I broke the mast that was part of the model. I've opted to skip the masts for now, as I cant get past the painting.
I have ordered a 20/0, 30/0, and 40/0 brush to aid my detail painting.

I have never found a need for anything smaller than a 10/0 liner brush. I prefer white nylon with acrylic paint. For 2400 scale models I mostly use 20 or 22 gauge wire.

Not a ship, but this, including insignia, was painted using Floquil sable brushes, the smallest of which was equivalent to 10/0 (a 5/0 missing some of the hairs…): The 1/1200 model is about 10mm long.

Mark

Just my 2 cents here but I have found that a good brush with a good point is better than going for the tiny brushes. I have found that the paint has a tendency to dry too quickly for me on the smaller brushes. I think the smallest brush I use is a W/N Series 7 #0. Now these are hard to find but there are other good brushes out there. Obviously YMMV!