Maarten Schönfeld wrote:
Hey Plasma Frigate,
Just want to encourage you! You are on the right track as you're describing your considerations so far.
Just a few notes to help: wooden decks are best painted very light tan or sand, and slightly weathered using a very diluted brown oil paint, to simulate the planking. just the sand/tan will not look right, as a wooden deck is not a single color but always has some texture.
Darker brown is not recommended, only when displaying the ships in heavy seas with a lot of water on the deck.
All the decks above the main deck were laid with 'battleship linoleum', being red-brown in colour. Even the planked deck of the forward superstructure should have this, the planking there is incorrect. Also all the searchlight platforms should have this linoleum.
As for the sides: German ships in WW1 where painted a VERY light grey, everything above the deck, and the hull sides a SLIGHTLY darker grey than the superstructure. Anyway much lighter than the ships in WW2, that wore a similar scheme. Many completed models on the internet are painted way too dark, sometimes probably referring to WW2 painting instructions. So don't take other's models for granted.
The turret tops were officially painted black (yes!), but because of the lighting from above this appears more like dark grey, so Anthrazit is a good compromise. The white rings on the most forward and aft turrets were only introduced in 1917, so you're right putting them on.
The railings on much of the superstructure and the searchlight platforms were covered with canvas 'dodgers' to give some weather protection, these were a natural canvas colour but often painted in the same grey as the rest of the superstructure. So you have some choice here.
No simple solution for blast bags, you can try to sculpt them from small blobs of Miliput, but it will require getting some practice first, rejecting a few before you find them satisfactory. But leaving them off is not wrong, the Germans wore these only on occasion and not standard, depending the expected weather and seaways.
Good luck!
Hey Maarten
thanks for the detailed answers. I already painted the hull with the Tamiya Haze Grey, and it did turn out darker than I would have liked. I might redo it in a light colour but can you please explain the different greys again? For hull, superstructure, sides of turrets and the lower deck sides where the secondary guns are.
Here are some photos to show the Haze Grey in action:
http://imgur.com/a/4dt35 The deck isn't glued on, I just put it on there as an example. In my opinion the hull does look too dark, too different from the illustration of Kronprinz on the model box. What do you think?
That is interesting about the battleship linoleum. I'll see if I can sand off some of the deck planking on the forward superstructure. I haven't painted any of the battleship linoleum yet but I did pick up the perfect colour for it at the hobby shop. It is Mr Hobby Russet. At least, I think it's a perfect match
won't know until I've painted with it.
I've never done any weathering before. I would like to, so the completed ship looks more 'natural'. Do you have any photos of weathered decks using the brown oil method you mentioned?
EDIT: I think I'll just stick with the colours I already have (the Haze Grey for the hull and sides of superstructure and the IJN Grey for tops of turrets). If I keep chopping and changing and buying new paints I'll never get this model finished. I'll forego historical accuracy if need-be. At least with my next model project I'll be equipped with the experience from Kronprinz. I'd still like to do some basic weathering if you think it's doable with my skill level?