as the title says, i'm building an ark royal, with a p/e set and was just wondering what colour the anchor chains should be- metallic steel or rusty steel?

Hi Phil. Anchor chain would have originally been painted either black or a dark grey. But as you can imagine it spends all its life being dragged up and down a metal hawse pipe (thus getting battered and chipped) and then dunked in salt water. Hence it will show rust pretty quickly.

That said, most warships have strict husbandry programmes and are constantly being repainted, so you could get away with either rusted or freshly painted - your choice. Where you will definitely see rust streaking and chips, unless she has virtually just sailed, is around and below where the anchors themselves meet the hull.

Overall the sea is quite a harsh environment, and even modern, well looked-after ships get a worn look very quickly. Our carriers looked really battered after a few months of Gulf ops, and that was without any enemy action against them of course.

thanks mate, i think i'll keep them as clean as looks right, i have'nt even thought about rust streaks etc. on the hull! because this is my first ship kit for a while i want to keep it as simple as possible (but still have it look great when its finished!)