Paint along with Danaussie - Tirpitz - Full Tutorial
May 3, 2017 2:00:16 GMT
Pearl Harbor Pete and ivanhoe22 like this
Post by weedsrock2 on May 3, 2017 2:00:16 GMT
Originally posted by Danaussie
Hi guys, well as promised, I will post a tutorial on how to paint a Tirpitz, this guide of course can be used to paint either of the Bismarck class battleships while colors and of course camo measures will vary. If you like you can paint along, this tutorial will take a few days to complete, and I will take you through each step in relative detail from the start to the completed ship.
This part of the thread I will updated regularly, but you will have time to paint along if you wish, remember also that these techniques may be used to paint any ship with wood grain decking, although as previously mentioned the colors may be varied depending on the ship you are painting. Remember we are using the principle of "Start Dark And Go Light", so start with darker colors first and as we go we will work her up to be lighter as we apply the dry brush and hi-lights. Enjoy painting is quite fun.
Ask questions and make comments as we go and we will all be able to learn things, including me. :wink:
STEP 1: First of all, prepare the model for painting, I will use warm soapy water, and then rinse the model and dry it. This will get off any finger marks and oily residue from handling and will allow the paint to take to the model easier. I will spare you pictures of my dirty sink. :lol:
STEP 2: Pop out the turrets from underneath the model using the blunt end of an exacto knife, they should just pop out, be careful not to lose them put them somewhere safe so that you can put them back in later after the basecoat is done.
STEP 3: Base Coat Deck - Unlike other models with grey decks, I like to base coat the Bismark's decks first, there are some hard to reach areas, get to these first, because once the grey goes on you will not be able to get to them later. Important tip. The areas between the super structure and secondary guns as hi-lighted in the above picture.
Use a dark red/brown when base coating wood grain decking, Either a Dark Flesh, Bestial Brown or for Vallejo fans the equivalents are Cavalry Brown #70982, Red Leather #70818 or Mahogany Brown #70846 is good too. Any of these colors will be fine for the deck base coat.
Dont worry about painting over tid bits and deck detail we will be getting to that in a little while, in fact it helps to bring out all the deck detail if you initially paint over it.
STEP 4 : 1st Deck Wash - Next I have given the deck a quick wash using Chestnut Ink, or Wood Grain Transperant #70828 (Vallejo), but you may also use the Art Spectrum (AS) range of artist inks for this (Sepia), but they are concentrated so dont forget to water it down some before you apply it. I use alot of inks and washes on my ships this is what achieves the depth. I will also mix the Wood Grain with a few drops of AS Sepia and then water that down to make a great wood grain wash.
Note the scruffy brush, used to apply washes.
This picture shows the three mainline washes and inks I use.
The first wash has not done much else other than show up the tid bits and deck detail, and it has started to pool in the recess next to the superstructure where you want the brown to be darkest. Good Tip: I have used an older brush for this since the flairing of the brush helps to soak up the wash and and help to cover the model better than a fine point brush will.
STEP 5: Base Coat Superstructure & Guns
I have used the Citadel Codex Grey or Basalt Grey #70869 (Vallejo) as equivallent. Make sure you get complete coverage here, and start to get a little neater as you make your way down to the deck. Once again make sure you get those hard to reach areas first.
I have also basecoated the underneath of the main guns, pick them up by the barrels and paint the underneath of the guns be careful not to paint the part that goes into the gun holes on the deck. Be careful also not to paint the gun ports on the deck either keep these free of paint so that the guns can move freely. After the paint has dried you can pick up the guns and complete the base coat. Allow all the base coat to dry before applying any wash.
STEP 6: Base Coat Hull
Now I have completed the hull base coat and finished base coating the turrets, as well as touching up any parts that I may have missed these will show up once the model dries as lighter grey to the rest of the model. When basecoating the hull I will use a flat square brush for more even paint coverage.
STEP 7: Black Wash
When all the base coating is done, it is time to get messy. The wash is important because it will add the depth and shading to the model, it will also show you, once it is completed, where all the raised edges are and define portholes and recesses which should remain dark.
Preparing a wash - A wash should be made from 10% paint and 90% water. I use a seperate Citadel paint pot to mix up my washes. I will add a mix of 10% Chaos Black or Black #70950 (Vallejo) I recomend Chaos Black always over Vallejo for this. Vallejo tends to have a sheen to it when used as a wash. Just remember it is a stained water that you want not a thinned paint.
Use dabbing and scraping motions to apply the wash, keep in mind the areas that need the most shading, these areas should be given extra attention to the rest of the model. I use my flat square brush to wash the hull but just an old scuffy fine detail brush to do the superstructure and deck.
Yes I will also black wash the deck, note that the deck is still brown but all the recesses have been darkened by the wash, this will now define the deck detail even more and provide the shading near the base of the superstructure. Note in the pictures the recesses are now darkened while the raised areas have remained a lighter shade. It looks a little messy but that what we want at this stage. Make sure your model is completely dry before proceeding to the next step.
Now we make her pretty.
STEP 8 - Dry Brush
This is where the magic starts to happen guys, if you do this right your ships will be magnificent. First prepare to dry brush, I always make sure I have a piece of clean white paper that I fold in half for a place to scrape the paint off my brush. The color you choose for your drybrush is important, the Tirpitz was an extremely light grey so that is the color I have mixed for this demo. You would want to use a lightened Fortress Grey or Lightend Light Grey #70990 (Vallejo).
A Word on Greys: In my short amount of experience using greys, I have found there to be really only three types the black/grey the blue/grey and the brown/grey. I recommend purchasing a shade of each for model painting along with each purchase two whites and two blacks, so that you can lighten or darken to meet the rquirement you need. I have litteraly dozens of pre-mixed greys to choose from. Like I have mentioned before the foremost expert on any color problems and enquiries is Weeds. At some point he may chime in and give his impressions on the exact historical colors we should be using for this project.
So we have got our color our paper and now for the brush, I use a (don't laugh) make-up brush for this. It is just the right size and the bristles are soft which is what I want. There are special dry brushes you can purchase but really any soft bristle brush will do for this application. Other artists may argue with me at this point but I say the scruffier the brush the better. OK that was embarrasing, moving right along. :lol:
Now make sure you remove all the paint from the brush, just scrape it all off on your piece of paper. The brush must be free of all visable paint. I can never stress this point enough, because it goes against everything natural you may have learned about painting. There is still paint on the brush, it is stuck to each bristle of the brush even though you cant see it.
Now lightly at first start to move the brush back and forth over the model length wise accross the models superstructure and then down, you will start to see the paint collecting on the raised areas of the model. The recesses will remain dark while the raised edges ar lightened. Using the large brush has meant that I have only needed to dip into the paint pot once to achieve overall coverage. You will know when you have dry brushed enough she should look a little like this.
Dont worry if you have got a little on the deck, we are not up to that part yet and it will be fixed up later.
STEP 9: Hi-Lighting Deck Works and Hull.
Now we start to get serious, hi-lighting is the longest part of the repaint, this process takes me several hours to do, and accounts for around 80% of the work. First we will hi-light all the deck works and the hull and I will show you how to paint around potholes. The deck works of WotC models are not all that detailed they usualy consist of a little rounded bump on the deck, so I incorporate a little technique I call "touching the tops".
Now all the little bumps etc have been shaded by the washes you can now plainly see them so using the same color you have used for the dry brush and using your fine detail brush, just go ahead and touch the tops of each of the little bumps to h-light the detail. While you are going do the bulkhead lines and anchor chains as well, try and be as neat as you can now.
Painting Around Portholes: This is a little trick I have incorporated over the last few years to avoid having to pin vise the port holes. Which I highly recomend by the way it just looks heaps better when the port holes have been drilled a little deeper. Anyways I grid off around the portholes first:
First length wise along the hull.
And then down.
This makes sure you know where the potholes are, then I start to round them off. I will use this technique around all such portholes wherever they might be on the model, just thought I'd show you guys that one.
Now start hi-lighting along the hull making sure you avoid the recess line along the hull, this little bit is one of the things that peeves me off about the Bismarck's, its difficult to avoid because of the drastic slant on to the hull.
When she's done she should look a little like this:
Dont be afraid to give her a little extra paint on the hull, remember this is where she will be handled the most, I incorporate a little "reinforce" painting in all areas that she will be touched the most. Bow, stern, top of the masts and superstructure and her hull. She is a wargaming model predominantly so keep that in mind when you are painting your ships. :wink:
A Word on Model Care: It has been my observation over the past 40 years on this earth that most people are self involved morons (with the exception of course of most foruminians), now every once in a while you will come accross a gamer that has no thought about the preservation or care of your models they will bump and scratch and carelessly knock them onto the floor. :roll: These gamers will get a prompt gesture of "HEY!!!" followed by the Danaussie death stare. And sometimes an insult such as "its ok it's not your fault you're stupid". Any of these comments is completely ok to ensure the preservation of your models. "Reinforce Painting" is therefore highly recommended. :lol: :lol: :lol:
STEP 10: Deck Hi-Light
Now we will hi-light the deck, this will add depth perception. Using your fine detail brush, paint along the edge of the deck and work your way in towards the tid bits on the deck, being careful to give a little room between the hi-light and the tid bits. In the picture below you will see how I achieve this, you can see that we now have 4 colors working for us to add the depth we want, the basecoat, the 2 washes, and the hi-light all giving us depth perception.
Work your way round the deck, making sure you leave a little room between the shaded areas and the new hi-light.
She should start to look like this when you are done, now we have depth perception.
We only have two more things to do to the deck before it is complete, we have our wet-brush blend and a little inking around the tid bits to finish up.
STEP 11: Wet-brush Blending
This step is hard to explain in words, so hopefully you guys will be able to determine from the pics what I do with this. The idea of the wetbrush blend is to give the deck its final high-light while smoothing out any inconsistancies with the paintwork. It also gives the illusion of dry-brushing to some extent. Now we are also adding a 5th color to the deck work which also adds more depth peception.
For wet-brush blending you will need a fairly watery paint, not quite the wateryness of a wash but pretty close to that, I would say its a 70% water 30% pigment mix. For light colored decks such as those you see in the Royal Navy and Kriegsmarine I use a Bleached Bone mixed with a little Sunburst Yellow. The Vallejo equivalent is Buff #70976 if you want it a little darker or more yellow mix in a little Ocre Marron #70856. But Buff is almost a dead on match to what I use, just really water it down.
You can see in the pictures where I pool the blend and then start to spread it towards the deck detail. As the paint dries and thins as you go, you should be getting nearer to the tid bits on the deck. Dont be scared to be quite generous as you go, or allowing to dry and then going again to get overall coverage. Go between the bits on the deck as the paint starts to thin.
I hope that at least gives some idea of the technique, you will need to follow up with a little inking to blend the shaded areas back into the wet-brushed areas.
STEP 12: Final Hi-Light
We are almost there, the last day, now we will finish her off. I have now added some inking around the deck detail using a sepia ink which is a brown/yellow type of ink. I have then hi-lighted the base areas where the turrets will be placed. Then I put the turrets back on and black washed around the range finders and barrels.
So we are up to the second last step, the final hi-light which we use the color we drybrushed with to do. The cool part is we have already completely transformed the ship from a fairly average WotC paintjob to a little pice of art. That will look terrific on a table top.
Here is the start of the superstructure hi-light. You can see I've just touched the tops of the lifeboats at the side of the superstructure and started the hi-light, start by hi-lighting the edges and work your way down exploiting the shadows that exist from the dry brush.
Your ship should look like this after the final hi-light, the smoke stack and the gun bags have been painted with Chaos Black. Tha final stage will be to apply the Swastikas on the deck and the camo measure.
STEP 13: Camouflage Measures & Final Detail
Lastly we will apply the camo and Swastikas will be applied to the hull and the deck. I will base coat the red stripes on the deck with a mix of Red Gore and Chaos Black this color is a pre-mix and also has a touch of Dark Flesh added. These colors were added to tone down the Red Gore which tends to be a little bright as a base coat. First plot the stripes lightly with the base coat color:
After the stripes are added I will paint on the circles with Skull White, make sure you have cleaned your brush properly before doing this as the white will turn pink quickly if you dont. :wink:
Plot the circles remember near the anchor chains you only want to create the illusion of a circle so just paint a little line on the outside of the anchor chain. Complete the illusion from the inside part of the anchor chain area:
You can fix any inconsistancies when you fill the circles with the white, be generous with the paint at this point.
When this is done and when the white is completely dry, you may apply the Swastika symbol. Paint this on at a 45 degree angle not straight, my sources show that these symbols were painted on at this angle.
Finish off by hi-lighting around the circle and over the dark red stripe with Blood Red.
They should look a little like this when they are completed. Before we get to the camo we will paint in the life boats on the super structure and on the deck with Skull white being careful not to fill in the darkened centres.
Camo - When applying your camo check your sources properly to see what you need to do. Use plot points on the model and check those with the pictures you have to see where to plot the camo. For example where does the camo start in relation to the anchor chains or the first turret. Mark out the camo pattern with a pencil or just go ahead and paint it on, which is what I usualy do. Remember you can always paint over any mistakes using your hi-light color.
And we're done, and she's off to the studio for some happy snaps. I hope you got some useful tips out of all that guys, wow, what a journey ha? Cheers guys.
Dan
Hi guys, well as promised, I will post a tutorial on how to paint a Tirpitz, this guide of course can be used to paint either of the Bismarck class battleships while colors and of course camo measures will vary. If you like you can paint along, this tutorial will take a few days to complete, and I will take you through each step in relative detail from the start to the completed ship.
This part of the thread I will updated regularly, but you will have time to paint along if you wish, remember also that these techniques may be used to paint any ship with wood grain decking, although as previously mentioned the colors may be varied depending on the ship you are painting. Remember we are using the principle of "Start Dark And Go Light", so start with darker colors first and as we go we will work her up to be lighter as we apply the dry brush and hi-lights. Enjoy painting is quite fun.
Ask questions and make comments as we go and we will all be able to learn things, including me. :wink:
STEP 1: First of all, prepare the model for painting, I will use warm soapy water, and then rinse the model and dry it. This will get off any finger marks and oily residue from handling and will allow the paint to take to the model easier. I will spare you pictures of my dirty sink. :lol:
STEP 2: Pop out the turrets from underneath the model using the blunt end of an exacto knife, they should just pop out, be careful not to lose them put them somewhere safe so that you can put them back in later after the basecoat is done.
STEP 3: Base Coat Deck - Unlike other models with grey decks, I like to base coat the Bismark's decks first, there are some hard to reach areas, get to these first, because once the grey goes on you will not be able to get to them later. Important tip. The areas between the super structure and secondary guns as hi-lighted in the above picture.
Use a dark red/brown when base coating wood grain decking, Either a Dark Flesh, Bestial Brown or for Vallejo fans the equivalents are Cavalry Brown #70982, Red Leather #70818 or Mahogany Brown #70846 is good too. Any of these colors will be fine for the deck base coat.
Dont worry about painting over tid bits and deck detail we will be getting to that in a little while, in fact it helps to bring out all the deck detail if you initially paint over it.
STEP 4 : 1st Deck Wash - Next I have given the deck a quick wash using Chestnut Ink, or Wood Grain Transperant #70828 (Vallejo), but you may also use the Art Spectrum (AS) range of artist inks for this (Sepia), but they are concentrated so dont forget to water it down some before you apply it. I use alot of inks and washes on my ships this is what achieves the depth. I will also mix the Wood Grain with a few drops of AS Sepia and then water that down to make a great wood grain wash.
Note the scruffy brush, used to apply washes.
This picture shows the three mainline washes and inks I use.
The first wash has not done much else other than show up the tid bits and deck detail, and it has started to pool in the recess next to the superstructure where you want the brown to be darkest. Good Tip: I have used an older brush for this since the flairing of the brush helps to soak up the wash and and help to cover the model better than a fine point brush will.
STEP 5: Base Coat Superstructure & Guns
I have used the Citadel Codex Grey or Basalt Grey #70869 (Vallejo) as equivallent. Make sure you get complete coverage here, and start to get a little neater as you make your way down to the deck. Once again make sure you get those hard to reach areas first.
I have also basecoated the underneath of the main guns, pick them up by the barrels and paint the underneath of the guns be careful not to paint the part that goes into the gun holes on the deck. Be careful also not to paint the gun ports on the deck either keep these free of paint so that the guns can move freely. After the paint has dried you can pick up the guns and complete the base coat. Allow all the base coat to dry before applying any wash.
STEP 6: Base Coat Hull
Now I have completed the hull base coat and finished base coating the turrets, as well as touching up any parts that I may have missed these will show up once the model dries as lighter grey to the rest of the model. When basecoating the hull I will use a flat square brush for more even paint coverage.
STEP 7: Black Wash
When all the base coating is done, it is time to get messy. The wash is important because it will add the depth and shading to the model, it will also show you, once it is completed, where all the raised edges are and define portholes and recesses which should remain dark.
Preparing a wash - A wash should be made from 10% paint and 90% water. I use a seperate Citadel paint pot to mix up my washes. I will add a mix of 10% Chaos Black or Black #70950 (Vallejo) I recomend Chaos Black always over Vallejo for this. Vallejo tends to have a sheen to it when used as a wash. Just remember it is a stained water that you want not a thinned paint.
Use dabbing and scraping motions to apply the wash, keep in mind the areas that need the most shading, these areas should be given extra attention to the rest of the model. I use my flat square brush to wash the hull but just an old scuffy fine detail brush to do the superstructure and deck.
Yes I will also black wash the deck, note that the deck is still brown but all the recesses have been darkened by the wash, this will now define the deck detail even more and provide the shading near the base of the superstructure. Note in the pictures the recesses are now darkened while the raised areas have remained a lighter shade. It looks a little messy but that what we want at this stage. Make sure your model is completely dry before proceeding to the next step.
Now we make her pretty.
STEP 8 - Dry Brush
This is where the magic starts to happen guys, if you do this right your ships will be magnificent. First prepare to dry brush, I always make sure I have a piece of clean white paper that I fold in half for a place to scrape the paint off my brush. The color you choose for your drybrush is important, the Tirpitz was an extremely light grey so that is the color I have mixed for this demo. You would want to use a lightened Fortress Grey or Lightend Light Grey #70990 (Vallejo).
A Word on Greys: In my short amount of experience using greys, I have found there to be really only three types the black/grey the blue/grey and the brown/grey. I recommend purchasing a shade of each for model painting along with each purchase two whites and two blacks, so that you can lighten or darken to meet the rquirement you need. I have litteraly dozens of pre-mixed greys to choose from. Like I have mentioned before the foremost expert on any color problems and enquiries is Weeds. At some point he may chime in and give his impressions on the exact historical colors we should be using for this project.
So we have got our color our paper and now for the brush, I use a (don't laugh) make-up brush for this. It is just the right size and the bristles are soft which is what I want. There are special dry brushes you can purchase but really any soft bristle brush will do for this application. Other artists may argue with me at this point but I say the scruffier the brush the better. OK that was embarrasing, moving right along. :lol:
Now make sure you remove all the paint from the brush, just scrape it all off on your piece of paper. The brush must be free of all visable paint. I can never stress this point enough, because it goes against everything natural you may have learned about painting. There is still paint on the brush, it is stuck to each bristle of the brush even though you cant see it.
Now lightly at first start to move the brush back and forth over the model length wise accross the models superstructure and then down, you will start to see the paint collecting on the raised areas of the model. The recesses will remain dark while the raised edges ar lightened. Using the large brush has meant that I have only needed to dip into the paint pot once to achieve overall coverage. You will know when you have dry brushed enough she should look a little like this.
Dont worry if you have got a little on the deck, we are not up to that part yet and it will be fixed up later.
STEP 9: Hi-Lighting Deck Works and Hull.
Now we start to get serious, hi-lighting is the longest part of the repaint, this process takes me several hours to do, and accounts for around 80% of the work. First we will hi-light all the deck works and the hull and I will show you how to paint around potholes. The deck works of WotC models are not all that detailed they usualy consist of a little rounded bump on the deck, so I incorporate a little technique I call "touching the tops".
Now all the little bumps etc have been shaded by the washes you can now plainly see them so using the same color you have used for the dry brush and using your fine detail brush, just go ahead and touch the tops of each of the little bumps to h-light the detail. While you are going do the bulkhead lines and anchor chains as well, try and be as neat as you can now.
Painting Around Portholes: This is a little trick I have incorporated over the last few years to avoid having to pin vise the port holes. Which I highly recomend by the way it just looks heaps better when the port holes have been drilled a little deeper. Anyways I grid off around the portholes first:
First length wise along the hull.
And then down.
This makes sure you know where the potholes are, then I start to round them off. I will use this technique around all such portholes wherever they might be on the model, just thought I'd show you guys that one.
Now start hi-lighting along the hull making sure you avoid the recess line along the hull, this little bit is one of the things that peeves me off about the Bismarck's, its difficult to avoid because of the drastic slant on to the hull.
When she's done she should look a little like this:
Dont be afraid to give her a little extra paint on the hull, remember this is where she will be handled the most, I incorporate a little "reinforce" painting in all areas that she will be touched the most. Bow, stern, top of the masts and superstructure and her hull. She is a wargaming model predominantly so keep that in mind when you are painting your ships. :wink:
A Word on Model Care: It has been my observation over the past 40 years on this earth that most people are self involved morons (with the exception of course of most foruminians), now every once in a while you will come accross a gamer that has no thought about the preservation or care of your models they will bump and scratch and carelessly knock them onto the floor. :roll: These gamers will get a prompt gesture of "HEY!!!" followed by the Danaussie death stare. And sometimes an insult such as "its ok it's not your fault you're stupid". Any of these comments is completely ok to ensure the preservation of your models. "Reinforce Painting" is therefore highly recommended. :lol: :lol: :lol:
STEP 10: Deck Hi-Light
Now we will hi-light the deck, this will add depth perception. Using your fine detail brush, paint along the edge of the deck and work your way in towards the tid bits on the deck, being careful to give a little room between the hi-light and the tid bits. In the picture below you will see how I achieve this, you can see that we now have 4 colors working for us to add the depth we want, the basecoat, the 2 washes, and the hi-light all giving us depth perception.
Work your way round the deck, making sure you leave a little room between the shaded areas and the new hi-light.
She should start to look like this when you are done, now we have depth perception.
We only have two more things to do to the deck before it is complete, we have our wet-brush blend and a little inking around the tid bits to finish up.
STEP 11: Wet-brush Blending
This step is hard to explain in words, so hopefully you guys will be able to determine from the pics what I do with this. The idea of the wetbrush blend is to give the deck its final high-light while smoothing out any inconsistancies with the paintwork. It also gives the illusion of dry-brushing to some extent. Now we are also adding a 5th color to the deck work which also adds more depth peception.
For wet-brush blending you will need a fairly watery paint, not quite the wateryness of a wash but pretty close to that, I would say its a 70% water 30% pigment mix. For light colored decks such as those you see in the Royal Navy and Kriegsmarine I use a Bleached Bone mixed with a little Sunburst Yellow. The Vallejo equivalent is Buff #70976 if you want it a little darker or more yellow mix in a little Ocre Marron #70856. But Buff is almost a dead on match to what I use, just really water it down.
You can see in the pictures where I pool the blend and then start to spread it towards the deck detail. As the paint dries and thins as you go, you should be getting nearer to the tid bits on the deck. Dont be scared to be quite generous as you go, or allowing to dry and then going again to get overall coverage. Go between the bits on the deck as the paint starts to thin.
I hope that at least gives some idea of the technique, you will need to follow up with a little inking to blend the shaded areas back into the wet-brushed areas.
STEP 12: Final Hi-Light
We are almost there, the last day, now we will finish her off. I have now added some inking around the deck detail using a sepia ink which is a brown/yellow type of ink. I have then hi-lighted the base areas where the turrets will be placed. Then I put the turrets back on and black washed around the range finders and barrels.
So we are up to the second last step, the final hi-light which we use the color we drybrushed with to do. The cool part is we have already completely transformed the ship from a fairly average WotC paintjob to a little pice of art. That will look terrific on a table top.
Here is the start of the superstructure hi-light. You can see I've just touched the tops of the lifeboats at the side of the superstructure and started the hi-light, start by hi-lighting the edges and work your way down exploiting the shadows that exist from the dry brush.
Your ship should look like this after the final hi-light, the smoke stack and the gun bags have been painted with Chaos Black. Tha final stage will be to apply the Swastikas on the deck and the camo measure.
STEP 13: Camouflage Measures & Final Detail
Lastly we will apply the camo and Swastikas will be applied to the hull and the deck. I will base coat the red stripes on the deck with a mix of Red Gore and Chaos Black this color is a pre-mix and also has a touch of Dark Flesh added. These colors were added to tone down the Red Gore which tends to be a little bright as a base coat. First plot the stripes lightly with the base coat color:
After the stripes are added I will paint on the circles with Skull White, make sure you have cleaned your brush properly before doing this as the white will turn pink quickly if you dont. :wink:
Plot the circles remember near the anchor chains you only want to create the illusion of a circle so just paint a little line on the outside of the anchor chain. Complete the illusion from the inside part of the anchor chain area:
You can fix any inconsistancies when you fill the circles with the white, be generous with the paint at this point.
When this is done and when the white is completely dry, you may apply the Swastika symbol. Paint this on at a 45 degree angle not straight, my sources show that these symbols were painted on at this angle.
Finish off by hi-lighting around the circle and over the dark red stripe with Blood Red.
They should look a little like this when they are completed. Before we get to the camo we will paint in the life boats on the super structure and on the deck with Skull white being careful not to fill in the darkened centres.
Camo - When applying your camo check your sources properly to see what you need to do. Use plot points on the model and check those with the pictures you have to see where to plot the camo. For example where does the camo start in relation to the anchor chains or the first turret. Mark out the camo pattern with a pencil or just go ahead and paint it on, which is what I usualy do. Remember you can always paint over any mistakes using your hi-light color.
And we're done, and she's off to the studio for some happy snaps. I hope you got some useful tips out of all that guys, wow, what a journey ha? Cheers guys.
Dan