What paint color accurately represents Muntz

[Depayne]

A build I am starting is a Revell 1/96 Cutty Sark.
I learned that this ships hull was not coppered but clad in muntz metal which has a brassy finish.

I don't know, nor can I find, an off the shelf paint, or paint mixture that accurately represents this type of metal.

Any tops on how to approach this would be helpful.

 

[Philski]

Found this....

 

[kuba91nt]

Munts its a naval brass, just zinc and copper alloy. They have a rich golden colour. Look at something similar to metal brass patina or antique brass. Or just mix gold paint with brass paint.
Maybe "rust-oleum antique brass paint" ?

 

[Uwek]

Muntz metal or also called Naval Brass
I was also already searching for a folio, but did not find any supplier until now

 

[rick robbins]

Depayne- I built the Cutty & the Thermopylae, but didn't find out about the Muntz metal until the Cutty was already finished. So, when I built the Thermopylae, the kit I had was made in 1960, with the hull already coppered. I VERY lightly sanded the hull, then added 3 coats of Testor's brass enamel over the top. The result was subtle, but amazing! Especially when the afternoon sun hits it! As for the Cutty, the one I built I gave to a friend. I'm thinking of building a new one, & I can start with a "bare" hull, getting it right this time! haha

Rick1011

 

[DomCee]

Hi, this is a topic that I have been looking into in some detail for my vintage Billings Cutty Sark kit.

I considered painting the hull on my model and tested quite a number of paints and there are some that give quite good "metal-like" appearances. However, they do all vary quite a lot in colour/shade/metallic sheen.

I found the metallic brass paints from Humbrol (no.54) and Revel (RV92) were a bit too dark and had a slight "glittery" appearance to them which would be noticeable at the smaller scale. The gold Humbrol paint (no. 16) was probably a bit closer to Muntz but had a slightly more darkish yellow tint to it (again, also a slight glittery finish). Some other "brass" paints were not "terrible" but I did not like the colour/finish they gave so I won't mention them!

The best paints I tested were the ALCLAD2, ALC-109 (polished brass) and ALC-108 (pale gold) < ALCLAD2 link >. The ALCAD2 paints are designed for airbrushing and I found that they were far superior to anything else - but you do need to follow their recommended painting method to get the best finish. They give an excellent metal like finish and in my tests the pale gold was probably the closest match to Muntz but, that's just my thoughts and you would need to test them yourself to see what you think.

You can see in the image that the brass on the C-S at Greenwich (as restored) is quite a pale greeny/yellow but I am not sure if they used actual Muntz or just a standard brass alloy when they re-sheathed it?

In the end I have opted to sheath the hull on my model in actual brass which I am working on at the moment (but that's another horror story!).

Hope this helps a bit.

 

[Kevin the Lubber]

The problem with trying to base your paint scheme on the real thing is that the colour changes with your position, the light, the time of day and so on. I spent hours looking at the hull (the cafe is under the hull) and the colour is everything from coppery to brassy. Personally, I used a Vallejo bright bronze all over, then washes of gold, brass and copper until I liked the end result. Does it look like the real thing? Not really, but I like what I ended up with anyway.

 

[Fever 4 the Sea]

On my 1/96 Cutty Sark I used Gold in a spray can of KRYLON Dual Superbond Paint-Primer. To me it looks pretty close to the hull in Post #6 above.

Cheers

 

[Kevin the Lubber]

To illustrate the issue, here are a few photos all taken in the same visit earlier this year. The final shot is of my model this morning, when today it looks a bit more coppery than brassy. I also need to make a correct to my original post, it was Bright Brass, not Bright Bronze that I used as a base coat, then the washes included Bright Bronze. For info, at one point I did try to create an effect something like the real thing but abandoned that fairly quickly on realising my ambition outweighed my talent .












ps. Is, as you go along, photos of a particular area would be helpful, send me a PM. I have literally thousands! Likewise when you start a build log.