Recommendations for spray paints?

[Paul H]

I've built a few ship models already, but these have been Meng's precoloured snap fit 1:700 scale ones as quick mojo fixers (the first two when recuperating from pneumonia last year), and Revell's recent 1:600 RMS Titanic (which I put together for my daughters as they were studing that topic at school) and which only needed detail painting.  Having now caught the bug for ships, I have since bought several other kits, which will be much more involved projects and they will also be my first attempts at painting this type of model.  I don't have an airbrush & so am intending to paint them using spray cans instead for the bulk of the colour application.  Whilst I've had plenty of success with this for car model kits, and also a Tamiya 1:35 Tiger tank that I am currently working on, selecting the right colours for those was easy.

 

Can anyone recommend which Tamiya* spray can colour(s) would be suitable for the following ships, or alternatively any other brands in a similar price range?  I've had a look at the online colour charts, but from past experience, have found that these are often not the best match to the actual finished paint...

 

*Especially keen on Tamiya, as they also do brush paints that match their spray cans, and this has worked really well with the Tiger.

 

HMS Dreadnought (both 1:350 & 1:700)

 

Type 45 destroyer (1:700 HMS Daring kit, but to be built as HMS Diamond)

 

Many thanks in advance!

 

 

[Vlad]

Dreadnought in what time period? Pre-war you need a very dark grey. I'm not familiar with Tamiya's paint range but a quick Google brings up XF-24; if I had to I would use that. YMMV if you think this makes the model look too dark, as a personal aesthetic preference I don't subscribe to "scale effect" lightened colours. A dry-brush would really help make edges and details "pop out" on a dark ship like this.

 

Wartime Dreadnought, still a dark grey but not as dark. My go-to for that would be Humbrol 27 Sea Grey, which I know comes in both small pots and rattle cans, and can vouch for as having used it extensively on 1/700 ships (although it does look slightly different brushed on than from the can). Tamiya also seems to have a Dark Sea Grey XF-54, which should be about the same thing.

 

The Type 45 is a light grey, slightly blue-ish, that tends to look different based on light conditions. I personally would approximate this sort of thing with the aircraft colour Light Ghost Grey, which Google tells me Tamiya has as AS-26.

 

The decks are a darker grey, whatever you end up using on Dreadnought would probably be close enough here.

Edited August 31, 2019 by Vlad

[Paul H]

Fantastic - that is really helpful, thank you!  I had no idea about the colour change & I have two eras for HMS Dreadnought (1:350 is the 1907 one, & the 1:700 is the 1918 version as didn't fancy trying to make 1:700 torpedo nets) so very useful info.  Just off now to look up those colours!

 

 

Edited August 31, 2019 by Paul H

[Courageous]

Hi Paul, welcome aboard.

From my point of view, I think you'll find that with Tamiya paints and Naval colours, you'll have an uphill struggle getting the correct colours. You'll most probably find that @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies is going to be source for paints for naval subjects but unfortunately for you, the Colourcoats by Sovereign are not aerosols.

 

Stuart

[Vlad]

18 hours ago, Paul H said:

Fantastic - that is really helpful, thank you!  I had no idea about the colour change & I have two eras for HMS Dreadnought (1:350 is the 1907 one, & the 1:700 is the 1918 version as didn't fancy trying to make 1:700 torpedo nets) so very useful info.  Just off now to look up those colours!

 

 

 

You don't need to "make" torpedo nets. This is what I use for them in 1/700:

 

https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/beads-unlimited-black-elastic-1mm-x-8m/561557-1000

 

it's thin enough and the texture is close enough to a rolled up net for the scale. After faffing with stretched stockings on a couple of projects I got this as a test and never looked back. There are different thicknesses as well which may work for 1/350 too.

 

Naval paint colours are one hell of a rabbit hole if you want real accuracy. With the constraints you specified you're in "close enough" territory. If you want to delve deeper, it's a fascinating world but beware all who enter 😂

[Chewbacca]

An entry level airbrush is not expensive and will give far better results than any rattle can.  I bought my first airbrush (well, first since I bought the Humbrol aerosol powered one 40 odd years ago which was hopeless) from Machine Mart.  They used to do 2 or 3 but now just list the Clarke CAB 3P which looks very similar to the one that I bought which was effectively a copy of the Badger 150.  Alternatively, Everything Airbrush offer a range of quite capable airbrushes under £20.  Couple that with a compressor like this and you have a very passable set up with change out of £75 (plus a couple of quid for an adaptor if you go the Clarke route as the hose is a different thread to the compressor output)