Painting
When Rodney and Nelson entered the Fleet for the first time in the late 1920’s they were painted in 507C Light Mediterranean Grey, with dark grey steel decks, Main and Secondary turret roofs, and the wooden sections left in bare wood. The Tamiya painting instructions are partly accurate except they’d have you painting the steel decks and roofs of turrets 507C or light grey as they call it, never trust kit instructions always check references. To this end I “primed” the model and sub-assemblies in XF-19 Sky Grey, then loaded the airbrush with XF-1 flat black and applied a line around the base of the hull approximately 4-5 mm from base for the black waterline or boot topping mark. After thoroughly drying the waterline mark was masked off using 2mm width tape, then the hull was re-sprayed XF-19 Sky Grey. A lighter mix of this colour was then applied again by airbrush to post shade the model and its assemblies. With this done the masking tape was carefully removed and the detail painting by commenced, starting with the large broad wooden deck areas. For this I used Humbrol enamel Matt 94 matt Brown Yellow. The steel decks and turret roofs were painted in Humbrol Matt 27 Sea Grey. For the remaining colours used the paints were acrylic from the Vallejo Model Colour range.
- 70950 Black: Funnel cap and insides, Parts of Masts, anchor chains, rigging
- 70863 Gunmetal: Light AA guns (photo etch ones)
- 70951 White: Anchor chains, Main Mast, parts of ship’s boats.
- 899 Dark Prussian blue: Motor Steam Launches (Hulls).
- 989 Sky Grey: Touching in main hull colour (matches Tamiya post shaded colour.).
- 70909 Vermillion: Navigation lights (portside Bridge).
- 70998 Bronze: tips of main & secondary armament gun barrels.
- 70983 Flat Earth: Insides of ship’s boats and cabins on steam motor launches, boat booms (moulded onto sides of ships’ hull.)
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