Transom Painting

The transom is a separate piece and can be painted by itself. the eagle was painted first with Testors Gold, followed by the shield and olive branch, painted red, white, blue and green respectively. I found a photograph of the stern decorations in a book and to my surprise the flags are white. So that's how I painted them. After the paint dried Flat black was painted around the decorations. The gold tends to bury the details of the eagle so I mixed up a wash of brown watercolor and applied it to all the gold on the stern. This adds depth to the eagle. A small amount of silver paint was added to gold paint to lighten it and then dry brushed on to highlight the raised details. I used a purple prismacolor pencil very lightly to darken the low areas of the flags for depth. Finally, green lightened with a little flat white was dry brushed onto the olive branch for detail enhancement.