Gentlemen,

Have a quick question. I know there are ways to layer paint in order to replicate hull plating but I want to take it a step further.

What material would be the easiest to work with but still represent realistic hull plating weld seams on a US WWII Aircraft Carrier?

I know alliance model works has a hull weld PE set but I would prefer to try something more readily available.

I am open to ideas.

thanks

Dave

Dave, What scale are you going to do this in?

Weld seams in 1/700??

1/350 scale

I really do not think you would be able to see a weld line in 1/350(IMHO).
I would try very thin stretched spur and thin Tamaya glue too soften the spur and make a chisel end out of some 20thou brass wire to create the weld line. HTH

I agree, scale hull plating and weld lines in 1/350 would be pretty hard to see. Paint can actually work pretty well; this is a 1/350 destroyer with plating/weld lines simulated with two layers of Tamiya (gray) fine lacquer spray surface primer.

Even with this close up view and extreme lighting, the effect is pretty subtle. The covering camouflage paint will mute the effect even further.

Gents,

Thanks for the input. Some of the kits have molded plate lines but they are inconsistent across the breadth of the hull. Especially Aoshima IJN subjects.

I have seen some built models that the hull plates seams are more pronounced and well I want to increase the accuracy of my builds without becoming a rivet counter.

thanks

Dave

I would think in the smaller scale to go with what Tim mentioned. I have used primer ...and/or paint (depending on effect) to simulate weld lines....and I though it came out fantastic. Top paint coats tone down the effect nicely. 1/350 I would do wither paint or putty depending on what you're going for.

Dave,

Archers Fine Transfers produce some decal/resin weld and rivet tranfers you may want to check out. I don't remember the scale but a fellow ship modeler did use them on a 1/144 ship.

Gents,

Thanks again for the recommendations. I am having a hard time visualizing the subtle hull lines on 1/350 especially when I look at 1/700 and the panel lines are so distinct. Suck as Kostas' 1/700 Saratoga.

Are those panel lines overscaled?

Dave

They might be slightly over scaled. Looking at some of the older carriers, there is a mixed bag of plating showing. But yeah, in 700, you would figure they would be lighter. You would see some oil canning on the real stuff, not that I am suggesting doing that, but that would accentuate the lines on the real deal I think.

Dave, Check your PM's

Gentlemen,

As always I greatly appreciate your insights and assistance. I am going to give the paint method a shot on the Yorktown. Heres to keeping my fingers crossed that I don't overdue it.

thanks again

Dave

Dave,
Here is a 1/700 plating photo of my SS Drumgeith kit by Jim B.



Jim's full how-to article is on my site here:

http://battlefleetmodels.com/id133.html

Hi Dave,
I tried the paint method of using dark colour/light colour lines together with mixed effect. Depending on the viewing distance it can look very effective I think. I tried with this build

On Achilles it works pretty well from a few feet away but if you look closely, it's a painted line. So depends on what you are after in terms of effect.

cheers

Michael