Hi guys,

I've started my 1/700 HMS Liverpool. This is the first ship I've built for many years and I've never built anything so small. 1/600 Airfix about 30 years ago was the last time and the enamel was applied with a trowel.

Should I airbrush the whole in light gray Acrylic then do the decks, then add the PE railings? If so then what can I use to mask the sides and superstructure? Tamiya tape cut in strips? Will that not be too thick?

I'm really not sure how to go about painting something so small without making a mess.

Any help and suggestions would be much appreciated.

If you browse through galleries, you will see all sorts of differing painting styles. Some hand paint most if not all of the ship, others will airbrush the ships and then attach the P.E. and then hand paint the P.E. details and railings. Regardless of technique, painting ships this small takes alot of planning.

I've only completed 5 ships, and I tend to use pre-shading and post-shading techniques used from building aircraft and armour. I attach all of my P.E. before painting, including railings. I then paint the hull sides and superstructures first, by applying a coat of black (a primer coat of sorts) over the entire model. I then spray multiple thinned out coats (up to 60% thinner) of light grey over the hull sides and superstructure sides, building up layers of thin paint and varying the shades of grey to avoid a monotone finish. Once dried, I prepare an assortment of low tack Tamiya tape and using a straight edge metal ruler, cut strips, from very thin (1mm) to about 10mm and of a width of say 5mm to 10mm. These strips are then placed over the grey painted vertical surfaces and used as a mask. It's time consuming, but once completed, you can airbrush the deck without fear of overspraying the grey areas. Any overspray on the hand rails and fine detail can then be touched up with a fine paint brush. At this point you can start the rigging...

good luck

Frank

Thanks Frank.

I must admit, I opened this kit and thought "Oh, there's the lifeboat, where's the rest of the kit?... Then realised...

As I said, It's been 30 years since I built a 1/600 thingie. Normally I build 1/35 or 1/32. The smallest kit I've built is a 1/72 Vosper. 1/700 has been somewhat of a shock.

Still... Onwards and... em... Downwards?

I felt the same way when I opened my 1/700 German Destroyer. The sad thing is there arr two lifeboats with the ship, those are small.

not sure if this helps, but I was looking at couple of my IJN 1:700 destroyers and thought the easier (?) way of painting them would be while still in the sprue tree and then touch up as needed. I also read in Mike Ashey's how to books to paint in assemblies rather than build, mask and then paint. No practical experience yet though! Jim

Murdo,

I build in sub-assemblies, hull, superstructure and weapons. Paint the sub-assemblies and then do the final assembly.

Gator

Murdo
Your plan is the way I would do it, though if the deck is all one colour I do it by hand. You could also spray the deck first and then mask that off, it is generally easier to do it that way than mask the superstructure I find. Tamiya tape is fine, the best I have found.

There is no right and wrong way to do this, you just have to find which way works best for yourself.

Mike

Thanks guys!

I'll give it a bash today.

I build 350 scale which is twice he size, but like Kenny I paint in sections and way back when I used to do the same procedure with 700 scale. I sually paint entire deck first then go back and handpaint all the raised details. I build all the superstructure, guns, cranes and whatever. I the paint those along with the hull sides. I mask then do the hull bottom. Then assembly and touch up. You just have to find a method you are comfortable with. Even painting a mono-color tank has several approaches to painting. You have tools and cables and tracks which are different colors.

Thanks Steve.

It's more the PE railings that was worrying me but I've decided to paint it seperately and then attach and touch up.

I was hoping to get some paint on it today but... This is the first Dragon kit I've built and the "instructions" are a wee bit confusing. Clearly drawn but... Despite saying "HMS Liverpool" on them they seem to be none too clear that it is actually "HMS Liverpool" they are instructions for... If you see what I mean.

If this is a kit of HMS Liverpool then there are some very strange ommisions, e.g. parts of the hull. The box art shows side supports for some of the decks (they're part of the hull) but both the kit and instructions have these supports missing. I had a look on the internet and ALL pictures of HMS Liverpool have these supports. Very peculiar! These aren't the only bits missed out on the instructions.

I'll make some from styrene but I find it very strange that this beautifully detailed kit would miss out some large hull parts. They are glaring ommisions too!

I remembered recently seeing a lovely model of this ship by Christer Johansson on this site so I looked it up to see the paint scheme. I noticed the hull ommisions instantly! They're on his model of HMS Liverpool but not on mine.

So, I'm now a bit baffled. I'll sleep on it and hopefully have another bash during the week.

Is this the Dragon Premium kit (Batch 2 Type 42)? Or the "regular" kit? Sometimes (I read) Dragon updates the molds betweenthe first release and the Premium release (at least for armor).

Dragon Premium kit (Batch 2 Type 42).

I decided that as usual a picture is worth 1000 words. The items in the red boxes are what is missing.

I had a tough enough time doing a 1/350 battleship, so I can only imagine how hard a 1/700 destroyer must be!

As others suggested, what I found to be effective is building up the superstructure in sub-assemblies, airbrushing them the main color, and assuming that the deck is a different color than the rest of the ship, going back and painting the decks by hand. Then add all the small details to the sub-assemblies (things like AA guns, and detail items on the deck etc.). These small items should all be painted off line before adding them. If you're going to air brush these, just make sure you have them secured to something. I used a strip of modelling clay for all the 20mm on the Missouri, doing all the major grey by airbrush that way, and then hand doing the black details prior to installation.

This avoided masking on everything above the hull completely. Next I add the completed top sections to the fully painted hull. At that point I will go back and add the railing and rigging.

As far as the hull goes, the thing to remember is to be very patient in applying the tape around both the stem and stern as the curved sections will sometimes be tough to follow. I often wind up using a whole lot of very small pieces to get it just the way I want.

One trick I learned in painting the hull, where you'll typically have at least 3 colors (red, black and probably some shade of grey) that helps to avoid the annoying problem of color leaking under the tape, before spraying the color you want outside the tape, first spray the color that's actually supposed to be UNDER the tape. If anything does leak, it's the color that's supposed to be there anyway, and when it dries, you shouldn't get any further leaks when you start to apply the correct color.

The only thing to remember is that if you're going to have any clear glass, such as on the bridge, that has to be added after you've painted or you'll have to mask.

There are a bunch of in progress photos of my build of the Missouri which should give you an idea how it went together.

Tom