My painting ships learning process (2)

[Lluis of Minairons]

It was with my fifth ship that I managed to settle an ultimate palette of colours matching my personal tastes. After having built and painted up to four Bourbon Spanish warships for my WSS naval wargames, it was the time now for an Austro-catalan vessel. So I chose to build a second galleon from Peter Pig to represent the Catalan ship Sant Josepet. This was a merchantman owned by a clergyman from Eivissa island ("Ibiza" in Spanish) who was a devote supporter of Archduke Charles' cause. When Catalonia was left alone in 1713 after Utrecht peace, the man gave his merchantman to the Generality of Catalonia, for them to re-arm it and assign to it escort duties of the convoys sailing from Majorca and Naples carrying supplies for Barcelona town, besieged by The Two Crowns.



Not any painting master piece, but I'm very happy with this job, because it allowed my to settle an overall painting pattern for my fleets henceforth. Such palette matching my personal tastes consists of applying the following:
- a mixture of Vallejo 912 Tan Yellow + 819 Iraqui Sand to upper decks,
- another mixture of 819 Iraqui Sand + 918 Ivory to sails,
- and for the first time, 872 Chocolate Brown mixed with a drop of 992 Neutral Grey for painting hull and masts. A small portion of grey does lighten a bit a dark brown indeed, but it also does give an ashley shade to it, similar to that one of wood left outdoors for a long time. And that's the effect I was seeking!



Having noticed thorugh 17th century paintings that ships' inner side of rails were often painted in bright colours such as red (for safety reasons perhaps?), I also gave a try to 908 Carmine Red for them --but after finishing up this ship I refined the option to a quite more satisfactory mix of it with 956 Orange.



Please allow me a last word about flags. I chose for this ship a still unreleased set from Minairons for a 17th cent. to 1714 Catalan privateer. I expect to release it before Summer (data about Austro-catalan flags of that period are hard to find, so that I committed myself to hold its launching for some time, while consulting to History scholars about the matter).



Hope you like it!
Lluís

[Colonel Kilgore]

I for one certainly do like it - lovely work!

Thank you too for the paint colour details as well as the historical comments - always very welcome.

[Leslie BT]

Lovely looking paint work on your ships.

Often the red on the inside on the upper deck was so as not to show the blood and frighten the crew.

Most of the RN ships were red ochre.

[Mike Tanner]

Your ships look great. Thank you for posting the images.

[Leman (Andy)]

Great looking ships. If only time was on my side; then again there's always el Ministerio del Tiempo!