The Ship Model Forum

From experience I'd say these pictures were taken after hydroblasting the hull to remove barnacles etc. It often looks worse when ships enter dry dock, yet better when they leave. Of course Eagle is special since she doesn't have commercial implications when dry docking.

Great subject and nice collection of good looking pictures :smallsmile:

Found these two pictures from another forum.
It's USCGC Eagle in the CG Yard 2014.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/9cOazYH.jpg?2[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/tUyHprE.jpg?1[/img]

typical wear on a merchant ship
[attachment=0]235506390_1354788194957811_5463670227113578194_n.jpg[/attachment]

Hi Les here. This may be too late, But! If anyone is weathering ships armor or anything else. Go to http://www.ak-interactive.com. They have a selection of youtube tutorials on how to use their weathering products. I highly recommend it. Oh and no I don't work for this company.

First post. Thought you might like to see HMS Warrior in Portsmouth Harbour yesterday, demonstrating a range of weathering, staining and fading 'effects'.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/bblMLiM.jpg?2[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/11QNl4f.jpg?2[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/0M15YYy.jpg?2[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/x5V4fcw.jpg?2[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/lb5XBnC.jpg?2[/img]

Waiting in hope for a 1/700 kit of this important ship.

Trusty ol´ Roberts. Must be in the 50´s or 60´s though.

................

Eric, just FYI, the cruiser you posted is the USS Quincy in '42, shortly before her loss.

I drive over an oil refinery three times a week and get a very good look at tankers unloading so I can see them resting low when full and very high when empty. Even if a ship is in very good condition (and a lot aren't) there's a lot going on along the waterline and below. I've come to doubt whether heavy weather works on a full hull ship though simply because we don't think of seeing a ship out of water. (Subs are different - I guess all of the movies make a properly weathered sub comprehensible.) Here's an extreme example of a sub: I believe this is I-400 as it is surrendering to US forces immediately after VJ Day:
[url=http://s971.photobucket.com/user/ebergerud/media/March13/15sub_zpsfa091ddc.jpg.html][img]http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae191/ebergerud/March13/15sub_zpsfa091ddc.jpg[/img][/url]

I think USN ships of the class of 44-45 would have almost all shown extensive weathering because they were at sea for such extended periods. (Conversely, a light hand would probably be called for when modeling many USN DDs newly arrived in the Solomons in 1942. CVs had a lot going on with a thousand guys wandering around on deck and a hundred airplanes skidding around - I've never weathered a CV deck, but I'll pay close attention when I do.) I believe this is Oakland in 1945:
[url=http://s971.photobucket.com/user/ebergerud/media/quncy_zps64e70308.jpg.html][img]http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae191/ebergerud/quncy_zps64e70308.jpg[/img][/url]


Although it's a black and white photo, I think that this shot of Missouri in Tokyo Bay immediately before the surrender ceremony shows that ships that fight hard show wear. (I'd think modeling a RN warship of almost any type would be license for the inner child to break out the finger paints. Not many harbor queens fighting for Churchill). Here's Mo and MacArthur:
[url=http://s971.photobucket.com/user/ebergerud/media/missouri_zps1609b122.jpg.html][img]http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae191/ebergerud/missouri_zps1609b122.jpg[/img][/url]

I'm partial to heavy weather myself - probably received bad advice when doing "Spanish School" armor with its blizzard of filters, washes, oils and pigments. That said, this coming year I plan to do a full hull "commission day" warship with weathering intended only to emulate shadow and give the colors some depth. The more orderly modelers have noted that weathering is a good way to hide blunders and they have a point. For me it would be a substantial challenge to key on creating a very clean build. Great hobby either way.

Eric

And a couple Fletchers as borrowed from Navsource:

A couple versions of the July 1945 Fortune...

I got some good photos of the ships in Philadelphia Navy Yard.

[url]http://flic.kr/s/aHsjxMa9iR[/url]

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7008/6624180955_5af9686b2e.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7011/6624142667_4e69a6cc94.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7005/6624225415_cba03e7a5c.jpg[/img]

Eerything is bigger in Texas.

So is our rust!! :p lol

Here is a pretty decent pic I found of the USS Texas BB-35 when she was dry docked in the late 80's for massive repair. Interestingly she had sprung a leak and settled a few feet and was actually sitting on the soft bottom for a while before they decided to start repair. It took a group of tugs nearly 8 hours to break her free to tow to dry dock.

[attachment=0]Battleship Texas-Drydock.jpg[/attachment]

It's your model - weather and display it however the heck you want.

That being said, I personally agree with the statement, but only if the [i]intent[/i] is to display a "museum style" model showing the ship in its theoretical clean state. If I want to portray a full-hull model with weathering, I'd put it on keel blocks like in a simulated dry dock. Although, I'd put it on keel blocks even if I was doing an unweathered model...

I have really enjoyed this thread and after googling ship weathering I came across a statement and would like some opinions on it. The author stated that ships on pedestals should NOT be weathered as they are a representation of a pristine and new ship, and basically only waterline models should be weathered. Is this true, is weathering a ship mounted on pedestals some kind of ship modeling faux pas? I was thinking about weathering my Bismarck model, which is going to mounted on pedestals or wood blocks. I believe that weathering a model gives it realism and depth, even the Bismarck which was painted daily, it seems :lol:

[quote]Chatting to a dockyard matey the other day. he tells me that crew-applied paint is frequently a problem[/quote]

That is true Rob, despite the fact that I'm sort of responsible for such jobs I admit it's not being done properly. All too often the cleaning is not done properly, which often means salt remains on the part of deck to be painted. This salt attracts water through the paint, and this causes bladdering of the paint as well as rust. Very often, although not so much on warships, painting on big ships is done as a touch-up job. It's too expensive to give full deck paint jobs (both in time and paint). This touch up is often tricky, you have to prepare the surface properly, which isn't that easy, but also you need the right conditions to do the job. So there shouldn't be any spray on deck, no rain, not too much humidity etc. These conditions, if they are met at all, often don't stay stable too long, so part of the job might be good, but most likely some spots will have to be done in worse conditions. These spots then very rapidly come back.
Another big disadvantage of these touch-up jobs, mainly on deck, is that they create a "pit" in your deck. These pits, scattered around the deck, gather water, this water (of course!) creates more corrosion. So you'll have to chip that spot again, creating an even deeper pit. It's advisable to make a regular large spot paint job, but that's not always suitable for the budget or time.

Here is a pic of the deck of one of our (ex-)ships. Note the light grey rectangles on the deck towards forward. The typical rectangle shape is created by the use of a roller for painting (spray painting as done in the yard, is not really done much at sea, another disadvantage)
Also not the smaller darker spots on the lower part of the pic on the deck. That is dirt that was cleaned off, but it collects in the "pits" (= previously chipped parts) after washing.
[img]http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac145/Sevmash/Chaconia/chacfwdweather_zps18037a41.jpg[/img]

Weathering technics:

DVD AK Interactive - Weathering German Ships


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4-y_i9WbRk

http://www.ak-interactive-usa.com/ak651.html


May use these products:

http://inscale.org/public/?p=3184

Best: Jimmy

[quote="Rdutnell"]I would like to make a suggestion regarding this Weathering Guide Forum. Take it for what it's worth.

Would it be possible to create 2 seperate forums, one showing weathering techniques and one showing weathered ship pix? The way it is, it is difficult to find techniques, but there are a lot of cool pix that help people trying to weather.[/quote]

As newbie in ships I support Russel here.
Sure, I have much experience with weathering military vehicles in 1/35 and smaller, but not in ships. Even I'm in sum at least for the first pleased with my first results on ships, I must clearly say that weathering military vehicles and ships are ... as we say in Germany ... 2 different pairs of boots.
Looking on the awesome good weathered models in gallery and current projects in "picture post", some guideline how to do will be fine. :wave_1:

I would like to make a suggestion regarding this Weathering Guide Forum. Take it for what it's worth.

Would it be possible to create 2 seperate forums, one showing weathering techniques and one showing weathered ship pix? The way it is, it is difficult to find techniques, but there are a lot of cool pix that help people trying to weather.

I guess this one could be labeled Prime Time

[attachment=1]5497.jpg[/attachment]

In this shot of a Sumner/Gearing, I don't think that's rust. Because of the darker areas, I think it looks like oil spill.

[attachment=0]7143.jpg[/attachment]