I've been chatting with Dan from the site. He mentioned it can be difficult for various reasons, but he showed interest and I offered to hook him up with ghukek and squint to work with. I got the impression he isn't interested in publishing generic "Essex" ones, for example, that we would have to trim etc. He wants to provide decals that fit exactly. Which I appreciate. Anyway, I'll post again if he shows further interest. I think a lot of us (me, too, although I've painted decks previously) would love a decal for the flattop after painting the rest of the ship a simple grey.
Yeah, I just heard from Dan today too. I was impressed that he checked out game pieces for WaS and Shapeways, but thought this might be a tough effort for not much return. I had hoped it might be a simple scaling, but I totally get it and was impressed with the effort! I'm with you, though. Given my last deck disaster with Akagi, I'd be all over a decal...
It looks like Dom's decals is unfortunately still closed up. Does anyone have a another good source for decals suitable for WaS aircraft? Specifically, I am looking for 1942 USN roundel (attached). I'm looking for hyper-small, like 24". I have a selection of 30s from Dom, but they are too big for the wings of most of the WaS airplanes I'm painting. Thanks in advance!
Thanks for the tip on the rubbing alcohol. I have an un-primed batch and I'll give it a try. It was a pretty awful feeling to have a couple of hours' work come sliding right off!
In the Vallejo guide that you put together, I used the deck blue 20B (Field Blue & Luftwaffe Uniform & water 1:3:3). I then washed with LW Uniform and water 1:4. Since that ended a little dark, I think next time I'll go heavier on the field blue, maybe 1:1 or 1:2 then wash with the LW Uniform so the overall color ends up lighter. For me, the pooling of the wash drove the switch from WSF to FUD. Of course, I don't game much anymore. If I did, I'd probably change my tune bask to WSF after the first drop...
On Roberts (WSF), I "fake washed" with barely watered down wash and simply painted it around the raised features. Not the best but kept some of the wash from settling in the middle of the decks.
I've had Roberts "half-done" for a couple of years now. This was one of my last WSF Shapewas ships. I have another in FUD that I'm hoping to paint up soon as HMS Abercrombe. This was a fun one to paint and the had at least 7 or 8 experiments with deck washes before settling on a simple brown over tan.
Roberts is from Squint's Shapeways store C.O.B. Constructs and Miniatures
Hiei was another guinea pig for some deck wash techniques on IJN battleships. I was going for a touch darker tone than the Royal Navy. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I have a bit more detail work to do, but close enough for some "almost done" shots.
While I had the camera out with some sunshine, I thought I'd re-shoot Myoko and Takeo:
All three ships are from Roe's "Tiny Thingamajigs".
Hi all, I've been experimenting with some new deck wash techniques lately. I decided to try them out on my RAN heavy cruisers: HMAS Australia (in US colors) and HMAS Canberra.
Australia's deck came out a touch darker than I was shooting for, but I like the result. I'm "practicing" a bit for my first foray into painting the USN.
Both ships are from Roe's "Tiny Thingamajgs" Shapeways store.
Clearly: 35x Swordfish Mk.II. Although some was intentional as proxies for other biplanes before the Fi-167 was released, this is 25 more than the next highest in my collection (U-47 x10 - seemed to be in every FS booster I opened)
Primed FUD Akagi a couple of years ago, just began painting this weekend.Unfortunately, I must not have cleaned well enough, because when I peeled up some of the "Jammydog" tape, it peeled up every bit of paint aft of the conning tower like a cheap sticker... Super-frustrating. Picture after trying to wash the rest of the paint off:
I was able to scrape the rest down, wash with soap and water and start again. Properly clean your models, kids!