I’m doing my first ship build, a 1/350 Z-17 destroyer. I’m used to building armor kits and getting paints from ammo Mig. Does anyone have any paint sets or paints they’d recommend for ship models. Would Vallejo be better Or someone else’s paints?
It looks like Lifecolour, Ak Interactive and Vallejo all make Kriegsmarine sets.
I don’t build that subject, but I get my USN colors from either AK or Trstors Modelmaster.
I don’t know offhand what MM makes, and they seem to get harder to find.
I like AK though, it’d be my recommendation to try.
Bill
I’ve used the LifeColor Kriegsmarine sets. Overall, it’s pretty good paint. Only thing is you will likely have to buy online; it’s not widely distributed in the US. They make two sets; set 1 is for surface ships, and set 2 is U-Boat colors mostly. LifeColor also tends to be rather thin. It can be brush painted, but frequently will require more than one coat.
I appreciate the responses guys. Seems like ships dont get the same paint sets as armor figures and planes but i may be wrong.
Model Master did make DKM colors in enamels. But that line is gone now. However, there should still a decent amount of new old stock out there. And yes, most Naval colors do not directly translate across to that nation’s corresponding land and air forces colors. That being said though, color RAL 7021 was the same for the army and navy. In different formulations though, as in the DKM it was used as the anti fouling paint on U-Boats. And it was used also for steel decks and camouflage patterns on the lighter base color on some ships.
I agree. I find among my model building friends that ships are the least built genre they build. Most seem to consider ships too hard. They want quick builds, so they stick to planes, tanks, and cards. I think the smaller number of ships sold reduces the incentive to put out a lot of ship colors for some paint mfgrs.
I use White Ensign paints for ships. I really like them. The colors were extensively researched by Snyder & Short and are very accurate. They have an extensive list of colors, are enamels, in little tins. There was an issue a while back regarding availability as the European postal services would no longer ship them to the US and the local major supplier, Snyder & Short was kinda driven out of business. It is now available again in the US through H & B Hobbies. and perhaps a couple of others. I’m glad I stocked up on my favorite colors before the shipping thing became an issue.
To be honest this my first ship model. My stash is mainly armor and figures with a plan. I usually aw my inspiration from reading history, for some reason the book “we march against England” made me want to build a German destroyer.
I will say coming from armor and figures to ships was unique, I’d say it is a little more time consuming and it really makes me slow down and check everything cause it’s new. I enjoy it, but like you mentioned i think the fact that not a lot of people build this subject makes it hard for manufactures to justify making paint lines.
As for white ensigns ill give them a look, i have my eye in a vallejo set, especially cause they have my destroyer on the back and it’ll help with first time painting… the zvezda directions are a little bland.
Unless you are painting direct from the yard and absolutly no weathering, ships paint will fade over a relitivaly short amout of time. Ships operate in the harshest environment imaginable for something made out of steel. Salt, wind, waves and constant sun will turn the “perfect color” to something that looks off from what the original manufacturer had in mind. You can put two ships from the same class and built from the same yard together and see a difference in shade depending on how far apart in time they left the yard.
I use Vallejo colors myself because I like their brush qualities, and just purchased two Lifecolor sets for the IJN and USN, but haven’t opened the bottles yet, so I can’t speak to their application properties.
Good luck finding a manufacturer that’ll work for you.
For the WEM paints, which are excellent; search the paint line name which is “Colourcoats”.
Okay i have a follow up question on my kit. The Z-17 from zvezda has a stand with it, it has the name of the ship and what appears to be rocks or something else. Idk what color to paint it can someone give me advice on that?
That would be up to you. Personally I would think about black and red. Not sure what the rocks are for other than embellishment. She didn’t run aground as far as I know, she was skuttled during the second battle of Narvik
Yeah I’m not sure if its rocks or what it just has her name plate on it and it’s comfigured in a way to look like rocks in my best interpretation of it. I was thinking of doing the nameplate in black with brass or gold lettering
Kind of looks like water to me. I’d paint it gloss black.
I agree. About the only thing that I worry about getting the exact color are factory stock cars. I wanted a very light gray for my L-19. Since there are decals all over the plane, I decided to go gloss for entire plane and dullcoat it after decals. Not much available. So I mixed gloss gray with gloss white till I got about what I wanted from photos. Probably won’t match the full size plane when freshly painted, but I will be adding a bit of weathering, and use the above rationale to justify.
well fortunately with the sea beating on the ship i can get some artistic license with it for weathering.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/99?loc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fp%2F15012052514
it appears as if it’s water I’m guessing. Found this pic of it in the base can’t really tell if that’s blue or a shade of blue
Absolutly.
Not until i started building and doing weathering did i really Notice how vehicles and equipment really do get beat up by the elements. This is an awesome pic