Tuesday 30 June 2009

"Some Damned Affair in the Balkans" Part 3

Following on from the self inflicted destroyer problem with the Black Sea Russians i decided to concentrate on finishing the Balkan ships before embarking on a new fleet. The models for the Greeks and Turks have been duly prepared, based and undercoated and now have the initial grey and deck planking painted. I am hoping to have these finished by the weekend and will post pictures when they are ready. I use two shades of grey; one for each fleet and am absolutely convinced that they are way too dark in hue. They look nice though and so I am not going to change them! It does raise the issue though of exactly what colour grey was in use in the early years of the 20th century - certainly there must have been enormous variety even in notionally the same shade. Add in the effects of weather etc and it makes for carte blanche to use pretty much any shade that takes your fancy - that is my story/justification and I am sticking to it! The one problem I always have though concerns decking, or more specifically, wooden decking. Where was it used? What colour should it be? I use a Humbrol Authentic Colour (showing my age here methinks!) HC 4 Deck Plank which is a very pale khaki shade. It looks OK on the models so I shall continue to use this until the last tin has dried out!

The bases I use are made from artists mounting board - my local art shop lets me have a huge bag full every couple of years or so, it lasts ages - and when the model is ready these are painted Humbrol Matt 25 which is a nice sea blue. Waves and wakes are in white and to finish off I use the obligatory white label with the name printed on and the national ensign. A new departure for me will be to have the names of the 'never was-ers' printed in italics - this will serve to differentiate them from their historical counterparts.

Of the models used in this part of the project I would have to say that my favourite is the Agincourt closely followed by the Italian Libia. The former is huge and is very nicely detailed for the scale whilst the latter is a really nice cruiser model. You will see them in due course - hopefully in time for the weekend.

2 comments:

El Grego said...

Re: deck color - wood was used on the main decks of ships bigger than TB/destroyers. Pale khaki is a good color. I like to vary the deck color for each fleet, personally, as you would the hull colors. Slightly darker decks for those navies that were prone to staying in harbor, and lighter decks for those out and about more often (like the RN).

David Crook said...

I must confess that I tend to only change the shade of grey for differing fleets although the decks would benefit from the same approach - good call re the effects of weather etc on seagoing as opposed to harbour dwelling navies - I had'nt thought about that! All the best, Ogre