NAVAL & GREY EFFECTS SET

An oil palette for ship models

Oil paint does not serve for a base coat but for finishing a surface. It dries slowly, can be spread for hours on end and can be drawn in the direction in which water ran down a real vessel. This set of six is put together for exactly that and revolves around the gray palette of warships, their decks and their superstructures.

It holds a neutral gray, an ivory black, a faded white, a light gray, a deep blue and a cadmium red. The first four work as filters and as brighteners for large areas, the blue deepens shadows toward the cool end and the red serves for rust and for the warning details that are never missing on a deck.

The procedure is straightforward: onto a dry, clear coated surface apply small dots, draw off the excess and spread the rest with a clean brush moistened in mineral spirits. The layer stays translucent, so the base tone still shows through it and the surface gains a depth that a sprayed coat alone will not give.

The use is not limited to ships. The same shades suit gray ground and aviation hardware, concrete areas in dioramas and figures in naval uniforms. Oil can be taken off with thinner within a few hours, so a failure will not destroy earlier work on the model.

A small practical tip: before using the tube, squeeze a drop onto a piece of cardboard and let it rest for a while. The paper draws off some of the binder, the paint thickens and it then does not run where it should not on the model. That simple step decides whether a streak stays narrow and legible or dissolves over the whole side of the superstructure, in which case the whole job has to be taken off and repeated.