| Painting the Hull Finally, after 20 months, paint was flowing. I was unable to find a decent color for the red/brown of the hull, and eventually had to mix an appropriate color. |
 Click Once To Enlarge |
| The "Formula" After a month of experimentation (and a lot of paint) a Humbrol paint mix came closest to the color. The mix was: 2 parts #132 Satin Red, 1 part # 133 Satin Brown and 1 part #174 Signal Red. Overall, I was very unhappy with how the Humbrol paint sprayed. It seemed to settle into pigments in the can that would not mix, it did not mix well with the thinner and "spurted" when sprayed, and it dried flat when it was supposed to be a "semi-gloss". |
| Painting Tips I am probably not a particularly good source for painting tips, as I hate painting. Months of work can be ruined by a poor paint job. But this is my procedure: Once the portion of the hull to be painted is taped off with low-tack "clean edge" painting masking tape, this area is then wiped with a tack-cloth to remove all the dust. Once the paint is mixed and added to Testors thinner in the recommended amount, a light spray of the color is misted on . The goal with this first coat is not to cover most of the primer, just mist some paint over the entire surface. After about an hour, the next mist coat is laid down but this time I try to cover most of the primer. The paint might appear flat and not an even color, but this is normal. After 3 to 4 hours, (or overnight) the mist coats should have set and its time to spray the final coat. The paint was sprayed onto the surface with steady motion until the paint starts to look "wet". Be careful to not apply too much or the paint will run. Do the entire surface ensuring an even coverage. Then let it dry at least 48 hours for enamels. |
| Wet-Sanding After the paint has cured there will probably be some texture such as dust particles etc. To smooth the paint job out, the entire model was carefully wet-sanded with 2000 wet-sandpaper and then wiped off with damp cloths. This smoothed the surface down nicely and removed the dust specks that had settled on the paint. |
 Click Once To Enlarge |
| "Lothar's Mix" For the upper hull, I switched to Testors Model master paints and was very pleased with how they sprayed. In April of 2003, I had the honor of visiting Lothar Wischmeyer in Oldenburg Germany, where he emphatically insisted that the upper portion of my hull above the water line be a mix of black and white to obtain the correct color. Not being one to argue against experience or the advice of a Master Modeler, I mixed the color above the water line at 1 part Testors Model Master 2740 Semi-gloss Black to 7 parts 1745 Insignia White.The water line color itself, was Testors #1791 Hull Grey. Lothar had told me that on Imperial German ships, this dark grey band was painted .5 meter above, and 1 meter below the water line. As the last step, the entire hull was coated in Testors Satin-Coat. Are you ready to see what it looks like? |
 |
 |
 |
| Intro / Filler / Prop Shafts / Hull Keels / Resin / Primer / Rudder/ Sponson Plate / Portholes / Water Gutter / Final Primer / Painting / Final Product |