Hull and Deck Painting

I always start by giving the parts a bath in lukewarm water and dish washing detergent while they are still on the spru. this is to remove any traces of mold release agent that may be remaining. The hull halves were cleaned up by removing molding flash and ejector pin stumps that will prevent the hull halves from fitting together correctly. Usually the hull halves are assembled together in the first step of construction, but, this kit is different. The gun deck and spar deck are assembled as one unit and assembled together with the hull halves on this model. Because of this, I painted the hull halves and the decks while they were unassembled. I painted the hull insides Testors Flat Red spray after masking off the outside and mating surfaces of the hulls. This was also a good opportunity to paint the gun carriages and inside the gun port lids. When the paint dried I brush painted the black strake on the hull and the yellow trim of the freeboard. When this dried these areas were masked off and the freeboard was painted Testors Natural Wood spray. Since the decks are the same color, They were painted at this time also. Finally, after this dried I masked off the bottom of the hulls and sprayed them Testors Flat White. The bulwarks were brush painted with Testors Blue.