USS Thresher

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Awful! What the hell happened ... do you apply that stuff with fire-crackers!?

Way too much paint in the brush for the vertical/radial 'white' streaking. Next time get most of the paint out of the brush on a rag before you drag the streaking onto the hull. And use a big brush for the radial streaking -- I use a four-inch wide house painting brush for just this kind of work, using long, quick downward strokes, with the bristles barely making contact with the model. Looks like you were using water soluble paint. Good. And you shoud follow up the vertical/radial streaking with a spray coat of thinned base color to correct and soften some of the streaking.

And when you do any involved weathing effect, have a 'test article' (painted cylinder or junk hull) next to you. For example: when you do the streaking, beat most of the paint out on a rag or towel (the wife will love that!) and when you have the brush pretty much dried out, steak first on the test article till you get the strokes and paint content right, then immediately transfer your work to the project at hand. Make your screw-ups on the test article, not the model.

There is no vertical/radial streaking below the waterline. Only indication of vertical 'weathering' below waterline is where the hull has been rubbing up against camels, fendors or pier pilings. There are horizontal bands near the waterline -- a consiquence of the stratification of waterborn polutants and variations in surface waterline while sitting in port. These are indicated with varying shades of the 'bleaching' white discussed below.

Your scum line looks like painted on boot topping. Too stark. Should streak and feather from top to bottom and should be a collage of green, brown and a dash of yellow. Mask off the upper hull and work the scum line using oils and/or oil bearing crayon. colored pencils (soft lead) are alos useful here. Below waterline should be a slight overcoat of white to indicate bleaching of all the hull clinging critters that died when the boat is drydocked (most shots of a weathered boat reflect a dried out bottom in drydock, hence the bleaching). A drydocked below waterline hull is bleached out, a light suggestion of green when in the water.

Nice try. Do it again!

Below are shots of what a properly weathered submarine looks like. And pay attention to scale -- streaking like yours would be appropriate on a 1/12 scale submairne, not 1/96!

David,

[Albion]

This is a bit cart before the horse as they say, would like to present my hull in its weathered state for inspection and comment. The WTC will follow later.

The white/grey streaking has come out more prominent than it is due to the flash. Im not really sure about the scum line though! seems far to perfect!