Painting the USS Gearing - question

[philtn]

hey lads,

I have a question about painting the dark sea blue areas of the gearing class (Dragon, 1/350)....

Most of the ship is grey of course, but I was wondering about how to apply the dark sea blue to the areas facing skywards...

Since I want to use my airbrush (entirely?) for this, figuring out how to mask the best way gave me a headache. especially the

bottom of the cylindrical range finder stands or around the bridge and AA emplacements is tough stuff.

How do you guys proceed in a case like that? paint (Airbrush) the blue first, then somehow "mask" it as good as possible?

Apply the grey first, then mask the vertical areas to apply the blue color? Use a brush?

Any help or maybe even a helpful build thread (not necessarily about the gearing) much appreciated...

good night!

btw, here's a little picture so you can figure what "blue" areas I'm talking about. nasty stuff...

Edited August 13, 2015 by philtn

[Graham Boak]

You are making it impossible for yourself. Use a paintbrush to paint all the parts whilst they are still on the sprue. If you must use an airbrush for the deck colour then do so but use the standard brush to touch up the smaller items.

[John @ WEM]

Bear in mind also that Dark Sea Blue is not correct for the decks & other horizontal surfaces. These were painted 20-B Deck Blue, quite a different colour. You can find 20-B Deck Blue at Sovereign Hobbies in their Colourcoats line of enamels.

[Shar2]

When I'm airbrushing a ship I do all the vertical sides first, then mask them off and spray the decks. Finally I use a brush to touch up and bleeds. All the smaller items I spray on the sprue and just touch up the area of the sprue gate after cleaning up.

[philtn]

I made a decision now. The hull ain't no problem, you can easily mask and spray the colors. Then I sprayed the DeckBlue onto all the

horizontal surface areas which worked pretty well. If you use the right angle, you can even keep the walls and hullsides clean...

I proceeded so far as that I have build the superstructure, the guns (also AA guns) and all deck parts that needed assembly, so that I can

spray them in the grey tones and then make touch ups and pick out details with a brush...

For the blue deck areas I decided to mask them as good as possible, spray the grey on the superstructure and repair f..ups with a brush

I'll post here if it worked out. thanks!

and yes Graham and char, I will spray all the single pieces that don't need assembly on the sprue. @John, I tried to darken my mr hobby color and

I think it worked out quite okey. My main color was H54 mr hobby, Navy Blue which I thought was closer that dsb

Edited August 31, 2015 by philtn