Hi folks! Just finished building the USS Arleigh Burke DDG-51. I need help on how to paint it… I use mostly Tamiya Acrylic paints. I have never painted a ship before. Most of my experience comes from painting Armor pieces, but im HORRIBLE at weathering, and washing… its like a huge brain fart for me. If i were going to paint this ship without asking for help I would probally airbrush the whole thing a gray color, no basecoat no pre painting the cracks black. Could someone tell me step by step, what to paint, and how. I finished the ship and I did airbrush the deck prior to putting it on, a grey color, and the rear deck where the helipad is is a grey with some black mixed in. I want this ship to be pretty i dont want to mess it up, so im reaching out for help on it.
Hey Joe!
Wow! Sounds like you need some refernce photos. Entire books are written on this subject. I don’t know what the color specs are for these ships.I’ll try to get you started any way. I’ll assume that you know about the Hull Red and black fot the water line. I’d cut the basic colors with white for scale effect and then give a wash to the entire model to give “depth” to all the highs and lows. A wash is basically tinted thinner. A heavier wash can be applied to things like vents. This should give you a good start. Hopefully, some better ship modelers than myself will have better info for you.
Here’s a website that shows some ships,of some destroyers (non-AEGIS) sitting in the naval yard (mothballed) although weathered heavier than you would want to go, it will give you an idea WHERE to weather… the Luce MacDonough and Farragut are what you are looking for, they are the closest to the class you are building…
things like: notice the superstructure and all are a slightly lighter shade than the hull, etc…
Ahh i do hav refrence photos, to me the ship looks almost like a white/grey, so i planned on using a ( i cant find the tamiya website chart w/ the colors) but a light grey with some white possibly, and yes black line on the hull with the hull red bottom. And actually this is the first photo that i have used refrence material on while building, and actually it came in handy. But yes anything else you can offer would be greatly appreciated!!
