Painting: Submarine hulls

[Woodstock74]

Just a general inquiry, what's your method of painting sub hulls? They're deceptively tricky, and sometimes with a resin kit, they can be weighty. I must admit I haven't come up with a good way to do it, any ideas?

[whitestar12chris]

It really depends on the country the submarine belongs too. USA modern is fairly straight forward up to seawolf class, humbrol 60 for the lower hull and satin black for the upper hull with matt black for the non-slip walkways. generally i use the red as an overall coat/primer, then mask a line for the black, then finally mask for the walkways.

Russian submarines generally have a white waterline marking, so i start with matt white all over then mask for the red, followed by satin black either side of white line, followed by walkway.

Older submarines with no rubber tiles, pre 1980, i use matt black for the upper hull.

Older submarines are country specific u-boats etc and painted to suit.

Hope this helps Chris

[Jessica]

If you don't have them mounted to a base you may need to paint one side, let it dry and then paint the other.

[whitestar12chris]

As Jessica says, the painting is done in stages, the priming coat is always applied in two stages, top half first then the bottom or vice versa usin any stand that comes with the model or improvising.

[Mixvs Minimax]

I use flat black Gunze 343. Then drybrushing with dark gray (R 74), followed by a burned siena wash. After that I take middle or redbrown acrylic-colour to paint slightly over the panel lines. At least I take black oil colour on a tissue and rub it in the surface.

[Woodstock74]

Oh, yeah, guess I wasn't clear; was more inquiring about methods to handle the kit. I do the, one-side-and-then-the-other, but was wondering if there's a better way. Doesn't really seem like there is!

[Mixvs Minimax]

Mmhm...You can also try at first the other-side and then the one-side. :-)