Looking great Tom. Cheers Grant
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That is a very nice base for the paint, Tom. It’s looking very promising.
Enjoy your vacation!
Regards, Peter
Post 32 - Out of Africa
We are back from an absolutely amazing trip to Zambia and Botswana (no ships but plenty of animals!) and so it's time to get back to the shipyard. The long flight home gave me time to re-read the instruction manual, and think about how to approach painting the hull and planking the deck. I decided to paint below the waterline copper, both to help cover any gaps in the copper plating, and also to let me bush up on my rusty air brushing skills with something that won't be seen. After clearing some space in my cozy shipyard and merging two spray booths into one, I masked off the topsides of the hull
After several botched attempts that clogged my air brush I finally got the paint thin enough to do the job.
Now I need to figure out how to mask off the sides of the gun ports and inner bulwarks while I give the copper paint time to cure before re-taping the water line and painting the topsides.
We are back from an absolutely amazing trip to Zambia and Botswana (no ships but plenty of animals!) and so it's time to get back to the shipyard. The long flight home gave me time to re-read the instruction manual, and think about how to approach painting the hull and planking the deck. I decided to paint below the waterline copper, both to help cover any gaps in the copper plating, and also to let me bush up on my rusty air brushing skills with something that won't be seen. After clearing some space in my cozy shipyard and merging two spray booths into one, I masked off the topsides of the hull
After several botched attempts that clogged my air brush I finally got the paint thin enough to do the job.
Now I need to figure out how to mask off the sides of the gun ports and inner bulwarks while I give the copper paint time to cure before re-taping the water line and painting the topsides.
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Post 33 - Topsides Painted
A quick update. I used DecoArts "Lamp Black" to paint the topsides. It has a little gray in it, compared to the Model Expo "Hull Black."
You may notice I put the tape on the wrong side of the waterline on the rudder! I need to do a little touch up around the gun ports, but I'm overall very pleased with how she looks. After I put away the spray booths to make some room, I'll start on the copper plating.
A quick update. I used DecoArts "Lamp Black" to paint the topsides. It has a little gray in it, compared to the Model Expo "Hull Black."
You may notice I put the tape on the wrong side of the waterline on the rudder! I need to do a little touch up around the gun ports, but I'm overall very pleased with how she looks. After I put away the spray booths to make some room, I'll start on the copper plating.
Good morning Tom. There is nothing quite like having a Botswana trip. I have done a few bike rallys and social 4x4 trips up there.....loved everyone. My Buddy has a game farm (he is a part owner) up in Northern Zambia and the game up there is plenty. Im glad you guys had a cool Southern African adventure.
Cheers Grant
That you is a true story.
Cheers Grant
Thanks for the kind words. I'm mainly fussy and somewhat compulsive (like a a lot of doctors) which helps with model building. However, I'd never have the guts to kit bash like you have with your Harriet Lane!
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Post 34 - Copper Plating - Not!
In the instruction manual for this kit David Antscherl recommends painting the lower hull copper, as copper plating "would look out of scale at 1:96." I know others have done it; I was impressed with @The Gavel's results, and so I had at it. A standard 14-15" x 48" copper plate is more-or-less 4mm x 1/2" at 1:96 scale. I bought 4mm wide copper tape from Mr. Amazon. I scaled down and had printed a 3D printed stamp that @g8rfan99 had sent to me, which stamps 4 plates at a time.
I made a simple jig,
glued a handle to the stamp, cut a bunch of strips and stammped away.
I plated the keel, and had started a second row at the stern, when I finally admitted to myself that it looked like crap. The tape is very thin and kept curling and wrinkling, and you couldn't really see the individual plates. It was like I had covered the keel in copper-colored Reynolds Wrap! I blame it on a combination of poor material and subpar skills.
The copper paint looks much better.
I defer to David Antscherl's wisdom (you should always listen to people who know more than you do!), and will leave the hull painted. My first copper plating will have to wait for a larger scale model and higher quality copper.
I spent today peeling/scraping off the tape and repairing the damage to the paint. I'll now backtrack and finish and attach the rudder before moving on to the sponsons.
Lesson learned.
In the instruction manual for this kit David Antscherl recommends painting the lower hull copper, as copper plating "would look out of scale at 1:96." I know others have done it; I was impressed with @The Gavel's results, and so I had at it. A standard 14-15" x 48" copper plate is more-or-less 4mm x 1/2" at 1:96 scale. I bought 4mm wide copper tape from Mr. Amazon. I scaled down and had printed a 3D printed stamp that @g8rfan99 had sent to me, which stamps 4 plates at a time.
I made a simple jig,
glued a handle to the stamp, cut a bunch of strips and stammped away.
I plated the keel, and had started a second row at the stern, when I finally admitted to myself that it looked like crap. The tape is very thin and kept curling and wrinkling, and you couldn't really see the individual plates. It was like I had covered the keel in copper-colored Reynolds Wrap! I blame it on a combination of poor material and subpar skills.
The copper paint looks much better.
I defer to David Antscherl's wisdom (you should always listen to people who know more than you do!), and will leave the hull painted. My first copper plating will have to wait for a larger scale model and higher quality copper.
I spent today peeling/scraping off the tape and repairing the damage to the paint. I'll now backtrack and finish and attach the rudder before moving on to the sponsons.
Lesson learned.
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- Jun 29, 2024
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If you’re skilled with an airbrush (and I’m certainly not) you might mist the copper paint with a related but darker color like brown to break up the solid copper.
Roger
Roger
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2026
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I am on the final stages of rigging my Harriet Lane and was kind of questioning whether I should have copper plated mine instead of copper paint. I guess I am glad I took the easy way out. I appreciate you at least giving it a try, i was looking forward to seeing it, sorry it didn't work out. Copper paint does look really nice, I added a fine line of red at the demarcation line between the black and the copper to make a little contrast.
I'm only glad I decided to bail before I got much further. Removing the copper tape really chewed up my paint.
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2026
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- Points
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That's a bummer, I used an acrylic from our local craft store for the copper and it went on really well with brush, mistakes in the planking were filled quite nicely. I see you airbrushed, hopefully with some fine sanding you can repair the damage. I did a lot of airbrushing on my plastic models but I have been reluctant to try it on my wooden ships, also I am lazy and find setting up the booth, brush, and cleaning was a pain so I went for fine coats of acrylic and 2000 grit sanding and multiple coats.
I bought some tape with he intention of copper plating the bottom, used some on the rudder (for the hinges) and with the fiddley trouble I had with that ( I had to discard half the attempts) I abandoned that idea. I have seen one ship where this was applied and it looked brilliant but they did not tell us how long or how much tape was necessary to do it. I decided it was beyond me