Merci beaucoup Nicolas!
Again some time since the last update… I have been busy though! But the painting effect was pretty time-consuming…
I finished the dirty tidal lines all around the ship, as clearly seen here:
But I followed the (darker) colours of the video, as I used the video as the main reference for the rest of the colours too:
I started by painting a thin line at the top. With a simple homemade device to keep the exact level, I painted tiny faint dots. Then, I connected these dots to a line, eyeballing to get it strait and checking with the device. The edges of the line were blended for soft transitions.
The lower line was painted by eye, using the top line as a visual reference. Next, more lines were painted in between, and the remaining space darkened to varying levels.
The dark lines finished. Note that the intensity is varied a bit, so the effect doesn’t become too uniform. All of this was hand painted around the entire model. That was very time-consuming (about 25 hours I think?), but the only way I could achieve my desired level of control and finesse.
Next, more dirt was painted below the dark lines. I didn’t take step-by-step photo’s of this, as I had to mess around to find what works.
But I will try to summarize:
- Paint a more or less transparent brownish grey zone below dark lines, often overlapping the dark lines too. Blend downwards. Locally paint some transparent ochre and flesh over it to break uniformity.
- Locally paint some base colour (anti-fouling red for example) in irregular line and splodges below the grey zone. Blend downwards, but leave sharp transition to the grey.
- Paint green growth and dirt to the bottom edge, but only here and there. Blend the edges a bit.
Close-up with only the dark lines:
And with the dirt below.
Towards the starboard bow, the photos show some heavier wear, where the paint seems to have been worn away completely. This was painted with light grey paint, with several filters over it (flesh, ochre, brown) to vary the tones. Very dark brown (the same as the dark lines) was used for the dirty ‘transition’ to the grey zone.
Note I also added the dirty waterline stain, from when the ship was still floating upright (compare with historical photos below). Now the sun-bleached anti-fouling red above this line makes more visual sense.
Working around these kind of details while keeping level lines was especially time-consuming:
The decks are only tacked in place with Blu-Tack, necessary to get the levels correct for both flight deck and hangar deck.
The rusted areas didn’t receive a grey zone below the dark lines, but rather a light rusty zone:
Everything was done with Humbrol enamels by the way.
In between, I also finished the stacks.
On the photographs, their interior looks rusted while there is some black soot around the outside edge. I have no idea why it is like that, but I painted accordingly.
First some rust inside with Humbrol enamels:
And soot with black enamel and some black pigment powders:
Cheers!
Marijn
Login
Register
FAQ
), but I did get much better results than with pinwashes. Adding highlights works much better than drybrushing; if you're not careful you can add that 'faded' , sun-bleached look that is very difficult to undo.
just sublim ...your are the "Werner" of our hobby 
)!