The Ship Model Forum

When looking at some of the pictures of real ships some of the camo patterns can seem daunting to try to replicate. A couple of our fellow modellers have asked me to post my methods for doing this to our forums. The reason for this is mainly because I no longer have the time to create masks for even my friends so rather than hoard the information, here it is.

The method I have come up with does take a bit of a learning curve to try to figure out, but in the end I feel are worth it. I am also including several links to video tutorials on YouTube that walk you through the tools I am describing. You can also search for other tutorials on GIMP by typing in what you are trying to do rather than a "tool name". The GIMP homepage also contains text walkthroughs to assist new users. Using these tools I have created masks for a few different projects. This build of Fred Branyan's USS Hughes (DD410) was one I created the mask for. http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/dd/dd-410/Hughes-250-fb/index.htm (linked with permission from Fred).

What you will need:
-A computer
-a photo manipulation program of a high caliber (GIMP or Photoshop as examples)
-printer
-light box
-Tamiya (or equivalent) tape
-fine tip markers (I like the Micron ultra fine ones that can be purchased at any half decent art supply store)
-cutting mat
-hobby knife
-your kit
-the best possible resolution photos of your subject on your computer
-your favorite alcoholic beverage (kidding)

First you need to acquire a photo manipulation/drawing program. You could spend a bunch of money on something like Photoshop, but I am cheap so I use GIMP. GIMP is a open source (free) program that you can download that does many of the similar things that Photoshop does. It is also being frequently updated to make things work better or add new tools. The disadvantage is that sometimes there are great tools in Photoshop that are not in GIMP yet because the community is creating the updates for free to GIMP so there is a bit of a lag. For purposes of this thread I will be talking about GIMP specifically. If you wish to use something else I would encourage you to look up what the equivilent tools are in your chosen program.

GIMP can be found here:
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Inside of GIMP you can scale the photo, rotate the orientation, change the sizing of certain areas of the picture (if you need to rotate the picture to be more of a beam shot you will need to grow or shrink certain aspects of the photo to fit correctly), change things like color hue/brightness/saturation to make it easier to see the pattern. Then you can save the file and print it out.

The first two tools are used frequently together. Scaling and Measuring. If you measure certain areas of the kit you can then scale the picture on your computer to match. Here are the links for those:

Scaling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oQOeQcsS9c

Measure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmhQqyTLUzQ

Getting the picture at the right angle can be done using the tools called Shear and Perspective. The walk throughs are here:

Shear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx_kBhkMmVA

Perspective:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjSoI3b-I_w

You can then adjust the color in various ways to make the pattern stand out more. Do not worry about loosing details like radar in the background. The point of this is to make the pattern easier to see.

I would also suggest cropping the photo to remove the excess background items. For example, it you are doing the hull first you will not need any of the upper works or the water in this photo. This will do a couple of things for you that have to do with printing. First, it will save you ink to not have to print all the extra things that are not needed. Second you need to scale the photo to fit on a standard piece of paper. This becomes easier to do without all the extraneous aspects of the photo. Which leads me to this part. If you have a hull that measures longer than 11", you will need to crop the photo into multiple separate files to fit on the paper (I usually leave a little overlapping section on each file to help me line up the printed copies easier then tape them together). Then print them out. IMPORTANT: LET THE INK DRY BEFORE CONTINUING!!!!!

Place the tape on the photo covering the areas you need to trace the pattern. Put the paper on the light box and trace. I do this at my desk so I can also have the photo(s) pulled up to double check what I am doing. If you have had to enlarge the photos it can seem really jagged on the pattern. A little creative license might be needed here to smooth out the pattern as the actual camo was not pixilated.

Remove the tape and place on your cutting mat. Cut the traced pattern. If this is a two color camo pattern this next part is easier. Paint the lighter color first. Apply the mask over the area that you want to keep that color. Paint the second color. Remove the mask and you are done.

If it is more than two colors I would suggest creating multiple masks. One for each successive layer of color. Example: The USN splinter camo patterns like Measure 32/3D have at least three colors on the vertical surfaces. For sake of argument we will say those colors are from darkest to lightest, 5N, 5O and 5H. Paint the 5H first. Apply a mask that covers the 5H areas you wish to keep and paint the 5O. Apply a mask that covers both the 5H and 5O areas then paint the 5N. The reason I do it this way is to not have to worry about bleed in small areas between tape if you try to line up successive masks. Doing it the way I suggest does take more time, but requires less touching up. Your milage may vary on preferences.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions feel free to either comment below or message me directly.

_________________
Gabriel

Thanks Gabriel - that is very helpful. I had not understood how to use a photo modification tool for that purpose and am grateful for the advice. You have opened a door to more detailed paint schemes for me!

In case it is of help to people uncomfortable with more complex graphics programs, my cruder method of making masks uses MS Paint, tape and grease proof paper. It is reliant upon already having an appropriately oriented image to work off. (Apologies if this method has already been posted by someone.)

This method is certainly not as accurate as Gabriel's. Fine adjustments to image size can't be made with MS Paint as you can't resize by fractions of a percentage, but it gives a reasonable result. Good enough for a bolder scheme like a Measure 32/3d on a BB, but perhaps not quite so helpful for Measure 12 Modified on a DD. (I think I will rely on Gabriel's method for the five-colour 1/350 PoW I intend to attempt soon.)

Here we go...

- Take a measurement of the model (I use the longest dimension, usually hull length for a ship and wingspan for an aircraft, as that will give the most accurate result with this method).

- Scale the image to the size of the model using MS Paint. To do that: open the image in MS Paint; go to Properties (it's under the blue unnamed tab next to 'the Home and View tabs) and select units in either inches or centimetres, as you used for your measurement of the model; make sure that 'gridlines' and 'rulers' are selected on the View tab; then adjust the size of the image using the 'resize' function on the Home tab until it is the same length as the model. When using 'resize, make sure that 'Lock aspect ratio' is selected so that height and length adjustment is proportionate.

- Print the image out so that it is the same size as the image on the screen (the print function in Paint will do that).

- Join the pages if needed, as Gabriel describes.

- Check the size of the printed image against the size of the model and adjust size again via MS Paint if necessary (work out the percentage difference between the image and the model to help with this, remembering that the adjustments in Paint are being made by percentage).

- Trace over the printed image through grease proof or baking paper, shiny side up, using a fine, dark, pen or pencil.

- Stick overlapping lengths of Tamiya tape or equivalent to the grease proof paper (shiny side up to make peeling the tape of easier), then you have two options: trace the lines of the scheme onto the tape using a light box (or a window pane on a sunny day) then cut the shapes out or, if the contrast of the pen/pencil on the grease proof paper is good enough to see the lines on the paper through tape, simply cut without tracing onto the tape.

- Peel the paper of the tape, place and paint as Gabriel so well described.

This leaves the printed paint scheme fit for multiple uses.

Regards,
LCJ

Isn't the difference in size between a 2-dimensional pattern and a 3-dimensional hull too great (e.g. complex bow/stern curves/slants)?

How can we cope for this?


Happy masking ~ Olaf!

You are correct. What you can do in sections like that (taking the bow flare as an example) start at the waterline and measure vertically to the top of the hull in that section. Make sure to have the tape measure right against the hull all the way up. You can then adjust the height of the photo in that section accordingly. This will give you the basic height. To make it truly accurate though, it does take tweaking of the areas that are seen at angles instead of straight on. You can morph specific areas of the photo expanding the height of only the off angle area to make the overall height match your measurement of the hull. It will take work and a lot of measuring from multiple angles and locations. I usually also cross check with multiple photos to get it as close as possible.

_________________
Gabriel