I have been tossing the idea back and forth about creating this thread for a few hours and decided I would. Mostly because I like seeing activity on the Shipwrights section of this forum.

What are the techniques you guys use to paint the Hull Red on your ships. I don't mean if you use a paint brush or an AB; but more along the lines of how you make it look great.

I recently painted straight hull red and it looks so...dull. I know it may be the correct color and all, but my minds eye always sees ships being more red-ish.

Do any of you highlight the sections or use shadowing with another red to give it that "pop"? Just curious.

Unfortunately I have never made anything look great in my life. Passable yes, but never great.

What I use is red auto primer. Krylon or Dupli-Color, which give you a red/brown (for IJN), and a few others, or a dull red respectively.

This subject was discussed in the HMS Malcom thread that Simon currently has going, and I believe the consensus was that the under hull colors varied so greatly by color, and through wear and tear, that just about any red would do, as long as it's dull.

There is an exception though, and one I should in fairness bring up. Once and awhile I set out to try and duplicate a builder's model, such as would be produced by Gibbs and Cox for a given ship design. In those instances I still use the Dupli-Color red primer, and after the kit is built and everything is painted, leaving off only the propellers, I mask the model and spray the under hull in Testor's Gloss Coat. It makes the red really stand out,but I would not recommend doing it on anything you wanted to appear as in service.

I am gonna try something out then. This is straight Hull Red on a KGV I am building



Due to my own incompetence, I have to repaint the entire thing this weekend. I am gonna add some red into the AB with the Hull Red and see how it turns out.

The red depicted is very close if not identical to the outcomes I get with the Dupli-Color auto primer. From my experience this most resembles ships in service,

Charlie,

Unless you are doing a diorama or showing extensive weathering, a simple flat red usually does just fine. Typically on ship models there is so much going on topside that as long as it is smoothly applied, the underwater hull color registers as simply "red" with most observers as they focus on topside details.



My 1/720 USS Massachusetts hull was painted with a straightforward Model Master Insignia Red enamel.

[quote]Charlie,

Unless you are doing a diorama or showing extensive weathering, a simple flat red usually does just fine. Typically on ship models there is so much going on topside that as long as it is smoothly applied, the underwater hull color registers as simply "red" with most observers as they focus on topside details.



Tim,

Agree with you 100%. Great looking ship.

Mark

So I mixed about 1/3 red with 2/3 Hull Red and it gave me this. In actual light, it looks a little less flat so that's nice. Don't know if it is enough to warrant the paint mixing again tho. That hull read just swallowed up the red.

I also got to redo the boot which I wanted to do. I used Tamiya 2mm tape after spraying the entire hull black and painted over it. Looks way better and more even.

So I dispense with pre-bottled hull red altogether and mix my own to suit. I start with Testor's or Tamiya (depending on the mood I'm in I suppose) insignia red. To this I add Testor's or Tamiya flat black, and if I want some variation in shade, I'll add some dark brown. I usually mix up more than I think I'll need, because when I paint ships, I invariably will need to do some touch up later. My standard is to start at a 10:1 ratio of red to black, and I'll add black from there. I use the brown to "shade" mixed in a separate container, especially if I want variation in hull plates, or if I want the mixture to appear more weathered. One thing, I like variationin my ship models, so I'll vary the paint mixtures so they all come out with slightly different colored hulls when they sit next to each other on the shelf-- it makes things more interesting that way.
VR, Russ

I just use Humbrol Hull red enamel and have done with it.

As has been previously said, the exact shade of red, so long as it isn't of the glossy fire tender variety, is just fine.

Maybe I've had that "hull red" thing wrong all along…

The cruiser Port Royal was a one off experiment. But what about the major Italian Navy warships during WWII? I've seen them in green! And the old White Ensign Colourcoats IJN hull red was a mix between red and orange!