"French fleet. Langton miniatures. Scale 1/1200" Topic

Hello, I add some of my latest works. They are some french ships: a 120 guns, a 80 guns and six 74 guns. I hope you like them.

Best regards,
Julián

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More photos here: link

Excellent work.

You have the canvas color spot on. Great work!

Oh my! Wonderfully done and I agree with JMcCarroll about the canvas.

While the canvas color is great for the hard-worked British ships, I personally think the port-bound French ships should have whiter canvas. But that's just me showing my Anglo-centric Napoleonic naval bias.

You'll have to tell us how you came up with that great "this ship has been at sea" canvas color.

Jim

Hi, thanks for your comments. To acquire that tone in the sails, I first paint with a bone white. I give several layers to get a good grip, better always several thin layers, not a single thick one. Once it is dry I apply lights mixed with a little white. When I have the finished boat (rigged), it is likely that there are traces of glue in the sails (shines), to correct this what I do is mix a little ocher with a dark brown, all diluted in water, having a liquid consistency but the paint is not very diluted. Then I apply this mixture on the sails with a medium brush. Be generous so that all the sail is covered with this mixture. We remove the excess by drying the brush on paper. When drying the mixture on the sails, use a brush moistened with alcohol (not soaked). Alcohol is a magnificent solvent for acrylic paints and acts in a very different way to water, allowing to pick up and blur the colors. It is a technique that with a little practice can be controlled well.

Finally, once all the sails are dry, I proceed to outline the edges of the sails with a mixture of bone white and white.