Saturday, April 24, 2010

Lifebelt


Lifebelt
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker
Kadets lifebelts are the usual single white plastic moulding found on model boat supplier stands at many shows. A quick coat of paint is all that is required before they can be fixed to the superstructure.

Since this is a reasonably large scale model I felt I could get away with gloss red for the main body. Over a white base this works pretty well - red paint has hopeless coverage so if the moulding had been whitemetal I'd have gone for a matt base coat followed by gloss.

The ropes are painted with an off-white colour. My pot of Humbrol 147 needs replacing so they are a bit greyer than normal but still OK.

The white bands are IMHO the masterstroke. Rather than try and paint them on neatly, I used some strips of insulating tape wrapped around the edge of the ring. The tape was stuck to the modelling board and 2mm wide strips cut and wound into place. In hindsight I realised that this is pretty much what the prototype has (not with insulating tape obviously) so it looks pretty good.

No comments: