Finishing
A ship at sea cannot look pristine so the weathering is very important. Oil paint is used greatly thinned with turpentine substitute. For general weathering Black and Burnt Umber mixed 50/50 with a lot of thinners. Remember you can always add more but it is impossible to get rid of it. Applied over a coat of Klear using a fairly wide brush in perfectly vertical strokes to replicate water and grime streaks which will only run vertically. If not it will look wrong.
Rust is an ever present feature of ships so this is added in the same way but using Raw Umber and a finer brush. Again vertical downward streaks trying not to over do it.
Base
Used artists acrylic Gloss Gel to form the waves and wake, then painted with acrylic colours before being given multiple coats of Klear to give that wet look.
My bases are made by a local picture framer who makes the frames “back to front” for me. I added a launch from an old King George V kit leaving from a lowered accommodation ladder to add interest. This had to be planned from the start sand the ship mounted at an angle to leave room for the launch.
Aircraft and crew
Nice straightforward little kits in their own right. No major problems except with my eyes and stubby fingers. Used some after-market P.E. mainly for the Swordfish wing fold and Skua cockpits.
Did not use the supplied Fulmars, they did not look right. Added extra Swordfish from Trumpeter…identical kits, funny that! Aircraft decals very limited so raided the spares box for the rest. Crew from various sources only limited by my ability so see them never mind hold and paint them!
