if you believe, you could escape of that one so easily, you could be wrong.
Do not forget, model making is a serious business
As said before, some color tests were to be done on a casein base ...
... looking spectacular, but far too fooked up
The good thing on the casein paint is, take a wet cloth and just wipe and redo .-)
The most difficuklt task for me: waaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiitiiiiing until the paint gets dry enough ...
more trials with the casein paint ...
... and oil paint diluted with original Zippo lighter fuel.
And it looks much different now.
After this I was researching more about the aging of ships. Unsually we tend to display the ships in a freshly build and painted state. Some bold versions show the ships in quite "wrecked" appearances. But I do believe, that most of their life, the ships were somewhere in between.
This made me have a closer look. I chose the following 3 ships, as I knew, that there is quite good documentation in the web.
First the Neptune in Genove (Google pictures: Neptune/ship/genova), light wooden hull
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/jarmi7d/5044918333/
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/peer_gynt/7655543406/
http://www.wanderingoverland.com/?p=855
http://photo.remgo.com/galeone-neptune/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peer_gynt/8033111211/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Genov ... CF7741.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Genov ... CF7743.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune_(galleon)
Funny to compare the freshly painted version with the neglected one. Nice to see the better condition in protected areas like underneath the channels. Exposed areas like underneath the cathead look much more tattered. Was this also on seagoing ships that extreme or is this more of a harboring effect? But also ships spent long times in harbor do to waiting, winter sleep or being in ordinary.
And the Gotheburg (Google: Gotheburg, ship), dark wooden hull
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maskofchina/311861497/
http://www.lemback.com/the-swedish-ship-gotheborg/
http://viktordonovan.blogspot.de/2011/0 ... nburg.html
http://www.lifeinnorway.net/wp-content/ ... borg13.png
http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/alben ... 666630.jpg
By the dark hull, the effects are not as visible like on the neptune. Funny to see the fresh scratch marks on the whales in some of the pictures
Then theHMS Surprise (Google: surprise, rose, san diego), painted hull
http://www.panoramio.com/photo_explorer ... er=2074768
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arejay/165878016/
http://photos.lomara.org/index.php/came ... o/100_0825
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seaveyfami ... /lightbox/
HMSSurpriseQtrbow800.jpg
and my favorites:
http://xpda.com/junkmail/junk163/pict9071.jpg
http://xpda.com/junkmail/junk163/pict9072.jpg
Also here by the degradation of the paint, one can exactly tell which year the picture was taken

The difference in between the fresh and the tattered is amazing.
Nice to see bleaching, rust, chipped color, algae on the waterline, patches and so
Also do not forget: Ships were build over some period, where the wood was alraedy exposed. So even a brand new ship usually was unlikely to show fresh wood in larger areas. But therefor repaired areas would stick out. On the other side I have never seen the patchwork on deckplanks like often shown in plastic models.
Amicalement, Daniel