Hi all.
I was wondering how to get a good looking prop for my Bismarck. It suggests painting them gold but I'm not too fond of this idea. Any suggestions on color? Perhaps brass? And is it possible to use bare metal finish to get a realistic look?

Let me know what you all think,

Sean

Howdy Sean,
For my 3 clams I would suggest useing brass paint. And for a weathered and tarnished look, I would use clear dullcoat with just a tad of red to give it that tint of oxidized brass. Most modelers use the new , presteen look of brass propellers. But to model a ship as it was pulled out of the ocean and put in drydock. The Prop would be anything but shiney!

Cheers,

Garry

Garry,
good idea, besides a shiny new brass prop is just a tad too shiny for my liking. I wonder why most instruction sheet call for gold colored props? BTW were props really made from brass? is if so why? doesn;t rust? is lighter? hmmm I think I may have just answered my own questions

Sean

Most are made of bronze. Why? it won't rust away. Bronze is darker and alittle more red-brown than brass.
v/r,
Cob

I would think that model manufacurers call for gold-panted props because it would seem that more people would have gold paint in their boxes than brass or bronze. Its more of a standard color. And given the size many things are painted in say gold or brass (such as a handle on something or rather) even in 1/35 armor that looks really small. To give you a good visual, go to my gallery and look at the .50cal on my Abrams. Look closely and you see the "brass" actually painted gold (look closer and see red tips, which I still need to eliminate to make 1-5 tracer rounds). Then look at other pictures on the tank and notice that because it is so small, that it doesn't matter. As for a prop, on small scale ships, it wouldn't matter to much - ergo what I just said. On larger scale ships, paint it a brass or bronze and fade it appropriately. Its like clean tracks on a dirty tank or clean exaust on an aircraft with a "dirty" (mess producing not neccessarily dirty looking) engine.

I always use brass...in fact, I don't have any gold paint. As to ship modelling, I think most modelers build them as show pieces and don't weather (Guilty) I have done a bit of rust on some, but generally have not been too pleased with the results. About the only wear and tear depiction I've done is on my 350 scale Essex in the depiction of my flight deck...painted it tan then oersprayed the deck blue fading it in the middle to show the stain being worn from take offs and landings