Bob Cleek

The US Navy coppered the underwater areas of launches and some cutters.  I’m not sure exactly when the practice began, I believe as early as the 1840’s. It ended with the standardized boat program in the late 1890’s.
 
Roger

See item #81018 Paasche H Series Single-Action Airbrush Set, airbrush painting set, for detailed airbrushing and coverage, H-3AS (micromark.com)
 
and
 
item #86112  MicroLux® Single Action Airbrush Set (micromark.com)
 

 

 
One says Paasche and the other doesn't. Can you tell them apart otherwise? One is half the price of the other.

MicroMark offers a Paasche single-action airbrush and for half the price what appears to be the identical item by MicroMark. The online catalog photos of the two airbrushes are identical. Could it be that one is a Chinese counterfeit, or is it just that they are pushing the MicroMark branded airbrush by showing an identical one marked up in price so shoppers will think they are getting a bargain buying the MicroMark one. If MicroMark is pulling this sort of thing, should they not be added to MSW's "rogues gallery" of pirate retailers?

That will get you a bit ahead of the game, but if you really want to get way out ahead, quit buying hugely overpriced rattle cans and spraying the paint out of them to load your airbrush. Instead, use canned paints and thin them to suit. (1-Shot Lettering Enamel is especially good, although glossy and will require a bit of flattening solution.) Alternately, you can use tubed artists oils and acrylics, mixing your own colors (or buying ready-mixed, if you wish) and thinning with the appropriate spraying conditioners and solvents for use in your airbrush. In terms of quantity, rattle can paint is very expensive stuff.

Like everyone else, I, too, have always experienced excellent service from Byrnes Model Machines. As an aside, I will share that I am now at the stage of my career when I'm easing into retirement, and am now operating a limited professional practice as a "solo" practitioner rather than as the managing partner of a firm with associates and support staff. Like the Byrneses, I am sure, I find myself under the continual pressure to meet my clients' unreasonable time expectations. It isn't that they are intentionally unreasonable, but they just don't understand that I don't have "operators standing by to take your call." The current communications technology has created the expectation of instant responses and instant gratification. A small family business, or, as in my case these days, a small solo professional practice, cannot provide instant email or phone responses nor guarantee "overnight shipping." It's just not possible. Sometimes there's just more of it than there is of you. Sometimes you need to take a vacation. Sometimes you catch a cold or just need a damn day off. There seems a continual parade of posts on MSW from forumites asking (or complaining about) why they haven't heard back from one or another "micro-business" supplier (e.g Model Machines, Syren Ship Models, Seawatch Books, Alexy Domanoff, etc.) because they haven't received an immediate reply to their email or phone call. Specialty ship modeling suppliers are often very small niche businesses. Reports are that the customer base for modeling products is less than a million nationwide in the U.S. and quickly decreasing because most hobbyists are over the age of 55. Let's try to remember that we are often dealing with "little guys" who are doing the best they can to keep up selling to a very small customer base with often quite small profit margins. Good things are worth waiting for! Let's give 'em a break! Amazon they ain't.  

Sacrificial wood chaffing strips have long been used on boat bottoms to protect them from rough landings. Lead, and I presume copper, have been employed for the same purpose, but metal, particularly lead, has the downside of adding weight. As for rudders, however, most, if not all, landings would have been done under oars which provided better control than a rudder in any event and if there was any concern of damage to the rudder, I expect the rudder would have been unshipped prior to landing. All that takes is to lift the rudder off the gudgeons. Rudders were routinely shipped when the boats were stowed aboard or hung in davits. Moreover, landings were planned to the extent possible to avoid rocky areas that risked stoving in a hull what might come down on a rock in the swells. These are just general assumptions made in light of basic seamanship considerations, mind you. I don't profess to be an any sort of particular authority on period small boat handling.

Ditto to what Roger and Kurt just said above. I have a Craftsman/King Seely bench top drill press my father bought in 1950 that has always been well-maintained and actually, relatively speaking, very lightly used. For drilling tiny holes, which I generally do with a pin vise, I just chuck a pin vise with the small drill bit in it into the Jacobs chuck. (This does require a high quality chuck and pin vise (e.g. a Starrett or the equivalent) to ensure concentricity. It has a 1/4" collet adapter for the quill, so it can be used for light milling. I have an X-Y table I use on it when the task requires it. I've got no complaints. Made in USA "Old 'Arn" lasts a long time and was well made to begin with. 
 
If  you are going to spend money on new drilling tools for modeling, I'd be inclined to go with a quality drill/mill like the Sherline. A drill/mill will cost more than a drill press, but will provide a lot more versatility.
 

Bob, I do the same 90% of the time as I keep the "little drill" covered.  Good pin vise can hold the numbered drill chucked into the full size drill press.
 

What sort of alcohol can be used for thinning Acrylic.
 
It's going to depend on the chemistry of the particular brand of acrylic coating. Acrylic, like most all modern coatings, is tricky stuff. Old-fashioned oil-based paints and varnishes are much easier to work with because, basically, they are all just mixtures of linseed oil, pigment, and, solvents like turpentine and minereal spirits (paint thinner) and, if you are sophisticated about it, Japan dryer. All of these materials are complementary and work well together. They are hard to screw up. Acrylics are a mixture of a complex modern chemicals and they vary from brand to brand. Some can only be thinned successfully with the manufacturer's own proprietary thinner. On the other hand, most can be thinned with water or with alcohol, which mixes well with water. Most of the manufacturers won't tell you that, but are happy to sell you water, alcohol, or a bit of both, in a bottle with their label on it for a lot more money than plain old water or alcohol. There is information on YouTube and modeling forums (particularly from the wargame figure painters who favor acrylics) that discusses what common low-cost thinners and condtioners (e.g. "Windex" glass cleaner) can be used for thinning the various brands of acrylic paints. Otherwise, what you have to do is experiment with various materials and see what works. Keep in mind that acrylic paint "pre-thinned" and bottled as "for airbrushing" is basically, if not virtually, identical to the thicker paint the same manufacturer sells for brushing, but it's priced the same, so you're paying a big premium for the thinned paint. (Thinner is cheap. Pigment is expensive.) In fact, many sophisticated airbrush users purchase "fine artists' quality" tubed acrylic paste (and oils, as well) and use that tubed, concentrated paint paste as the base for airbrushing paint they thin themselves. The biggest advantage of this approach is the cost savings and the fact that the thicker "artist's oils" medium keeps much better in the tube than opened bottled paints. I can't say which type of alcohol can and which cannot be used for thinning any particular brand of acrylic paint. I doubt that it matters, except that I'd avoid alcohol that is mixed with something else, such as bottled rubbing alcohol. In my shop, alcohol is a "staple" solvent (used also for fueling alcohol lamps, cleaning, etc.) and I purchase plain denatured alcohol from the paint or hardware store in gallon tins. I do the same for mineral spirits and acetone. I decant these into smaller containers, often squeeze bottles, as the occasion dictates. You can purchase a pint or quart tin of denatured alcohol (called "methylated spirits" in the UK) and play with it and some of the other concoctions discussed in the airbrushing forums and see what happens. The big advantage of thinning with alcohol rather than water is that alcohol is a "hot" solvent, meaning it evaporates quickly. This speeds the drying time of your airbrushed medium exponentially over water, which evaporates slowly in comparison. Spraying with a hot solvent allows you to spray a thin film, application after application, and build up your coats without having to wait a long time between coats. Properly mixed, your sprayed paint will appear to dry in an instant, although it will take some time to harden enough to permit sanding. It goes without saying that, when working with acrylics, it's best to "dance with the girl you brought" and stick with the brand that you come to like best and with which you've become most familiar because they are all a bit different from each other. The second thing to keep in mind is that period ship modeling generally doesn't require a large pallet. A few tubes of basic colors will be all you need to mix all the colors you'll ever need. (I'm always amazed at the pictures of plastic modelers with shelves lined with hundreds of little bottles of differently colored modeling paint.) Larger tubes of black and white and smaller tubes of brown, yellow, red, blue, will cover most requirements if you learn the "color wheel." (There's a very good article on mixing colors for shop modeling in Volume II of the NRG's Ship Modeler's Shop Notes on sale by the NRG and well worth the investment.)
 
When using alcohol or brand name thinners is there a general recommendation on mixing % or do we use the milk like consistancy as a general rule.
 
It is not an exact science. There's no way to give you a recipe. Things like the ambient temperature and humidity that vary from day to day are but a few of the variables. You can find paint in a previously opened bottle has thickened some over time, so the amount of thinner is going to vary on that account. Certainly, the thickness of paint will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. You just have to "eyeball it" and see how the mixture looks when it comes out of your airbrush. Remember that the nozzle size of your airbrush and the air pressure you set will also dictate the consistency of the paint it is going to perform best with. You just have to mix it, experiment, and see. Practicing will give you a feel for it. For airbrushing, think "skim milk" and then add thinner from there as needed. These variables demonstrate the fact that paint bottled "for airbrushing" isn't going to free you from the need to condition your paint. They just get you closer, perhaps, and charge you dearly for that convenience. Getting the hang of conditioning paint isn't rocket science and it's easy to pick up, but it's one of those things that's a lot easier to learn by doing than by trying to explain in words. Let your airbrush show you what it's happy with. These same realities also demonstrate that if you are modeling ships, you really don't need a lot of colors, particularly if you learn to mix your own. (Get a "color wheel" that will give you the proportions to yield particular colors.) The fact that a particular manufacturer offers many colors in little relatively expensive bottles is meaningless to ship modelers. If you are a "rivet counting" railroad or military modeler, you will appreciate the ability to buy ready-mixed "Santa Fe boxcar brown" or "Union Pacific reefer yellow," or "1943 German field gray" or "1944 USN battleship gray," confident that your color will be historically accurate. Ship modelers, particularly period ship modelers have no such concerns or historical limitations on color accuracy. 
 
Perhaps for a beginner one should use the paints own thinning medium and perhaps they would offer the correct %  for their own paints/primers or varnishes
 
Yes, that is true, I suppose, but that's only going to take care of what thinner you should use. There's no way to know "how much" except by working with it and finding the "sweet spot" that works best for you and your airbrush in any given situation. If you can find advice on the YouTube wargaming figure painting videos as to what you can use other than the proprietary thinner for the paint you're using, you can try it and see if the convenience of the manufacture's thinner is worth the additional cost or not. The proprietary thinners and other conditioners (accelerators and retarders) do provide some certainty that you are using material that is compatible with the chemistry of the brand of acrylic paint you are using.

What sort of alcohol can be used for thinning Acrylic.
 
It's going to depend on the chemistry of the particular brand of acrylic coating. Acrylic, like most all modern coatings, is tricky stuff. Old-fashioned oil-based paints and varnishes are much easier to work with because, basically, they are all just mixtures of linseed oil, pigment, and, solvents like turpentine and minereal spirits (paint thinner) and, if you are sophisticated about it, Japan dryer. All of these materials are complementary and work well together. They are hard to screw up. Acrylics are a mixture of a complex modern chemicals and they vary from brand to brand. Some can only be thinned successfully with the manufacturer's own proprietary thinner. On the other hand, most can be thinned with water or with alcohol, which mixes well with water. Most of the manufacturers won't tell you that, but are happy to sell you water, alcohol, or a bit of both, in a bottle with their label on it for a lot more money than plain old water or alcohol. There is information on YouTube and modeling forums (particularly from the wargame figure painters who favor acrylics) that discusses what common low-cost thinners and condtioners (e.g. "Windex" glass cleaner) can be used for thinning the various brands of acrylic paints. Otherwise, what you have to do is experiment with various materials and see what works. Keep in mind that acrylic paint "pre-thinned" and bottled as "for airbrushing" is basically, if not virtually, identical to the thicker paint the same manufacturer sells for brushing, but it's priced the same, so you're paying a big premium for the thinned paint. (Thinner is cheap. Pigment is expensive.) In fact, many sophisticated airbrush users purchase "fine artists' quality" tubed acrylic paste (and oils, as well) and use that tubed, concentrated paint paste as the base for airbrushing paint they thin themselves. The biggest advantage of this approach is the cost savings and the fact that the thicker "artist's oils" medium keeps much better in the tube than opened bottled paints. I can't say which type of alcohol can and which cannot be used for thinning any particular brand of acrylic paint. I doubt that it matters, except that I'd avoid alcohol that is mixed with something else, such as bottled rubbing alcohol. In my shop, alcohol is a "staple" solvent (used also for fueling alcohol lamps, cleaning, etc.) and I purchase plain denatured alcohol from the paint or hardware store in gallon tins. I do the same for mineral spirits and acetone. I decant these into smaller containers, often squeeze bottles, as the occasion dictates. You can purchase a pint or quart tin of denatured alcohol (called "methylated spirits" in the UK) and play with it and some of the other concoctions discussed in the airbrushing forums and see what happens. The big advantage of thinning with alcohol rather than water is that alcohol is a "hot" solvent, meaning it evaporates quickly. This speeds the drying time of your airbrushed medium exponentially over water, which evaporates slowly in comparison. Spraying with a hot solvent allows you to spray a thin film, application after application, and build up your coats without having to wait a long time between coats. Properly mixed, your sprayed paint will appear to dry in an instant, although it will take some time to harden enough to permit sanding. It goes without saying that, when working with acrylics, it's best to "dance with the girl you brought" and stick with the brand that you come to like best and with which you've become most familiar because they are all a bit different from each other. The second thing to keep in mind is that period ship modeling generally doesn't require a large pallet. A few tubes of basic colors will be all you need to mix all the colors you'll ever need. (I'm always amazed at the pictures of plastic modelers with shelves lined with hundreds of little bottles of differently colored modeling paint.) Larger tubes of black and white and smaller tubes of brown, yellow, red, blue, will cover most requirements if you learn the "color wheel." (There's a very good article on mixing colors for shop modeling in Volume II of the NRG's Ship Modeler's Shop Notes on sale by the NRG and well worth the investment.)
 
When using alcohol or brand name thinners is there a general recommendation on mixing % or do we use the milk like consistancy as a general rule.
 
It is not an exact science. There's no way to give you a recipe. Things like the ambient temperature and humidity that vary from day to day are but a few of the variables. You can find paint in a previously opened bottle has thickened some over time, so the amount of thinner is going to vary on that account. Certainly, the thickness of paint will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. You just have to "eyeball it" and see how the mixture looks when it comes out of your airbrush. Remember that the nozzle size of your airbrush and the air pressure you set will also dictate the consistency of the paint it is going to perform best with. You just have to mix it, experiment, and see. Practicing will give you a feel for it. For airbrushing, think "skim milk" and then add thinner from there as needed. These variables demonstrate the fact that paint bottled "for airbrushing" isn't going to free you from the need to condition your paint. They just get you closer, perhaps, and charge you dearly for that convenience. Getting the hang of conditioning paint isn't rocket science and it's easy to pick up, but it's one of those things that's a lot easier to learn by doing than by trying to explain in words. Let your airbrush show you what it's happy with. These same realities also demonstrate that if you are modeling ships, you really don't need a lot of colors, particularly if you learn to mix your own. (Get a "color wheel" that will give you the proportions to yield particular colors.) The fact that a particular manufacturer offers many colors in little relatively expensive bottles is meaningless to ship modelers. If you are a "rivet counting" railroad or military modeler, you will appreciate the ability to buy ready-mixed "Santa Fe boxcar brown" or "Union Pacific reefer yellow," or "1943 German field gray" or "1944 USN battleship gray," confident that your color will be historically accurate. Ship modelers, particularly period ship modelers have no such concerns or historical limitations on color accuracy. 
 
Perhaps for a beginner one should use the paints own thinning medium and perhaps they would offer the correct %  for their own paints/primers or varnishes
 
Yes, that is true, I suppose, but that's only going to take care of what thinner you should use. There's no way to know "how much" except by working with it and finding the "sweet spot" that works best for you and your airbrush in any given situation. If you can find advice on the YouTube wargaming figure painting videos as to what you can use other than the proprietary thinner for the paint you're using, you can try it and see if the convenience of the manufacture's thinner is worth the additional cost or not. The proprietary thinners and other conditioners (accelerators and retarders) do provide some certainty that you are using material that is compatible with the chemistry of the brand of acrylic paint you are using.

Ditto to what Roger and Kurt just said above. I have a Craftsman/King Seely bench top drill press my father bought in 1950 that has always been well-maintained and actually, relatively speaking, very lightly used. For drilling tiny holes, which I generally do with a pin vise, I just chuck a pin vise with the small drill bit in it into the Jacobs chuck. (This does require a high quality chuck and pin vise (e.g. a Starrett or the equivalent) to ensure concentricity. It has a 1/4" collet adapter for the quill, so it can be used for light milling. I have an X-Y table I use on it when the task requires it. I've got no complaints. Made in USA "Old 'Arn" lasts a long time and was well made to begin with. 
 
If  you are going to spend money on new drilling tools for modeling, I'd be inclined to go with a quality drill/mill like the Sherline. A drill/mill will cost more than a drill press, but will provide a lot more versatility.
 

One common arrangement was simply a friction drive with the bare side of the motor shaft pressed against the outside edge of the planetary gear assembly which had some sort of rubber band around it to improve friction between the shaft and the edge of the planetary gear assembly. Alternately, a section of tight-fitting vinyl or rubber tubing can be slid over the motor shaft to reduce slippage on the bare motor shaft. It appears there is a threaded rod on the motor mount which may accommodate adjusting the tension of the motor shaft on the edge of the planetary gear assembly. There doesn't seem to be any apparent problem with that motor that some provision for variable speed-control won't solve. It would appear that the design is "first generation." It only will accommodate three-strand cordage. Domanoff's PL-4 will produce three- and four-strand cordage, right and left-handed lays, and it will permit layups around a core strand which is required for four-strand layups. This machine appears capable only of three-strand right and left-handed layups. To my mind, the biggest limitation is the lack of a speed-controlled take-up reel. This machine's take-up reel is hand-cranked. The operator will have to continually turn the crank at a speed that maintains proper tension coming off the planetary gear assembly.

It looks to be a somewhat basic three-strand planetary machine similar in operation to Alexy Domanoff's PL4 model. You can download instructional videos for all the Domanoff machines here: Downloads | ShipWorkshop.com

Some soak, boil, or steam their wood, and it's a matter of style, I suppose. There is a range of "bend-ability" among various wood species, but from a scientific standpoint, it's the heat that softens the lignin in the wood, permitting it to bend without breaking and to harden in the shape it's bent when the lignin cools. Steaming or boiling the wood only serves as a medium for applying the heat to the wood. In full-size construction, steaming is used because it is the best method of heating a full-size plank or frame timber, not because the wood needs to be wetted. It's absolutely true that a wet piece of wood may well shrink when it dries. There's no reason it needs to be wet, as illustrated by Chuck Passaro's planking tutorials.

Allan's advice is worth reposting in full. If you require some sort of clamp to hold a plank's shape while the adhesive you are using takes hold, that plank hasn't been properly shaped and bent. That may often be more easily said than done, but there's no way around it and trying to overcome defects in plank fitting any other way will certainly be more work and perhaps grief than if the plank is properly shaped before it is hung. 
 
I'd only add that if your plank is properly shaped before it is offered up to the framing, use of an electric plank bender or the equivalent to apply heat to the plank at the point of attachment will speed the evaporation of the PVA's water-base and hasten the PVA's taking hold. Care must be taken not to scorch the plank face, of course.
 

 

The simple answer to your question is that a well built drill press that has been reasonably well taken care of should last a lifetime.  Mine is coming up on 60 years.
 
A more complicated question is whether spending $300 for this makes sense.  Like most things, it depends.  If you are just assembling model kits, I see little need for a drill press.  If you have more ambitious projects in mind then you need to consider the size of the table and height under the drilling head.  In this case, bigger is better and I would not buy a mini tool.  I use my drill press most days that I am working in my shop, but my project, a 1909 era steel lake freighter is somewhat of an outlier.  Since the topsides are soldered brass, I am constantly making jigs from craft plywood and aluminum to hold brass pieces in place for soldering and this requires many drilled hoes.  For drilling tiny holes in brass parts, I use a sensitive drilling attachment fitted to my Sherline milling column.
 
If I were spending $300 I would look for a quality full sized used drill press; Rockwell, Delta, etc.  OR, I would spend $100 for a Menards general purpose house brand drill press and save the remaining $200 for Sherline tools at a later date
 
Roger
 
 

Some soak, boil, or steam their wood, and it's a matter of style, I suppose. There is a range of "bend-ability" among various wood species, but from a scientific standpoint, it's the heat that softens the lignin in the wood, permitting it to bend without breaking and to harden in the shape it's bent when the lignin cools. Steaming or boiling the wood only serves as a medium for applying the heat to the wood. In full-size construction, steaming is used because it is the best method of heating a full-size plank or frame timber, not because the wood needs to be wetted. It's absolutely true that a wet piece of wood may well shrink when it dries. There's no reason it needs to be wet, as illustrated by Chuck Passaro's planking tutorials.

Some soak, boil, or steam their wood, and it's a matter of style, I suppose. There is a range of "bend-ability" among various wood species, but from a scientific standpoint, it's the heat that softens the lignin in the wood, permitting it to bend without breaking and to harden in the shape it's bent when the lignin cools. Steaming or boiling the wood only serves as a medium for applying the heat to the wood. In full-size construction, steaming is used because it is the best method of heating a full-size plank or frame timber, not because the wood needs to be wetted. It's absolutely true that a wet piece of wood may well shrink when it dries. There's no reason it needs to be wet, as illustrated by Chuck Passaro's planking tutorials.

"I'd only add that if your plank is properly shaped before it is offered up to the framing, use of an electric plank bender or the equivalent to apply heat to the plank at the point of attachment will speed the evaporation of the PVA's water-base and hasten the PVA's taking hold. Care must be taken not to scorch the plank face, of course"
 
One point here. You do not want to glue a soaked or wet plank as it can shrink as it dries depending on how long you soaked it. To get the best result steam bend then let the entire plank dry before gluing. I usually glue the course I did the day before and the I'll bend the next batch once my glue is dry enough which is not long. I also trenail the batch I glued the day before so there is plenty to do and drying is not holding me up.

If you are pre-shaping the planks via either spiling, or heat and edge bending as seen in Chuck Passaro's four part video series, there is no need for clamping or nailing.  If a plank is too springy to hold after a minute it probably has not been properly pre-shaped.  There are always some tough spots like the areas aft at the transoms that can be tricky but can be managed in a variety of ways including those above.   There are also some advocates of cyanoacrylate glue that sets quickly or a combination of PVA and CA.  Try these various methods and see what works best for you. 
 
Allan

Like everyone else, I, too, have always experienced excellent service from Byrnes Model Machines. As an aside, I will share that I am now at the stage of my career when I'm easing into retirement, and am now operating a limited professional practice as a "solo" practitioner rather than as the managing partner of a firm with associates and support staff. Like the Byrneses, I am sure, I find myself under the continual pressure to meet my clients' unreasonable time expectations. It isn't that they are intentionally unreasonable, but they just don't understand that I don't have "operators standing by to take your call." The current communications technology has created the expectation of instant responses and instant gratification. A small family business, or, as in my case these days, a small solo professional practice, cannot provide instant email or phone responses nor guarantee "overnight shipping." It's just not possible. Sometimes there's just more of it than there is of you. Sometimes you need to take a vacation. Sometimes you catch a cold or just need a damn day off. There seems a continual parade of posts on MSW from forumites asking (or complaining about) why they haven't heard back from one or another "micro-business" supplier (e.g Model Machines, Syren Ship Models, Seawatch Books, Alexy Domanoff, etc.) because they haven't received an immediate reply to their email or phone call. Specialty ship modeling suppliers are often very small niche businesses. Reports are that the customer base for modeling products is less than a million nationwide in the U.S. and quickly decreasing because most hobbyists are over the age of 55. Let's try to remember that we are often dealing with "little guys" who are doing the best they can to keep up selling to a very small customer base with often quite small profit margins. Good things are worth waiting for! Let's give 'em a break! Amazon they ain't.  

First off, there is probably no "ready to go" paint, acrylic or otherwise, that is made for airbrushing that doesn't require some sort of conditioning. If there is, you can bet it will require some conditioning the second time you open the bottle to use it. There is a bit of a learning curve to painting and it's best to learn from someone who knows what they are doing and can show you. Writing out instructions takes a long time and I've done it several times over the years and have no taste for doing it again. Suffice it to say your paint for airbrushing must be around the consistency of skim milk or just slightly thicker than water. To get the right consistency, you will have to experiment with your particular airbrush. They are not all exactly alike. Some will atomize quite thick material and others are partial to much thinner material. Follow the instructions with your airbrush to set it up for the material you are using. You should use the manufacturer's recommended thinner and other conditioners, at least until you get the hang of it. Acrylic coatings are best thinned with alcohol, which mixes with the acrylic's water base, but evaporates quickly to permit the best application behavior for spray painting. Alkyd paints should be thinned with mineral spirits or acetone, which, like alcohol in the case of acrylics, dries quickly when applied with an airbrush. Lacquers, should you use these, require lacquer thinner. You should practice with your airbrush until you become comfortable with it. You can use water in it and spray it on cardboard material to practice using the airbrush. Once you have the control mastered, you can use the coating you intend to use applied to a piece of cardboard to make sure you've got the actual material application down pat. Always do a test before any application to the model itself. It's a lot easier to throw a piece of cardboard or paper in the wastebasket than it is to remove sprayed paint from the workpiece.
 
As for colors, I mix my own. I use artist's oils mainly, but acrylics on occasion as well. I buy the paint which is sold in "toothpaste tubes" in art stores.  Mixing your own paint is a simple skill that will save you a lot of money over time.  You can purchase any color you want ready mixed or primary colors you can use to mix your own colors. You can purchase modeler's paints in any color under the sun, as well. They sell them in "brushing" consistency and in "airbrushing" consistency. I see no reason to buy the paint thinned for airbrushing because you are paying the same price as thicker paint with more pigment and getting only paint thinned for airbrushing. Paint is a lot more expensive than thinner. You can go to the painting and airbrushing section of the forum and read the reviews and comments on the various brands of premixed paint. As for colors for copper sheathed hulls, use your eye. I doubt that anybody sells "oxidized penny copper" as a color. I use a medium-dark brown with a fair bit of red in it as a base color for copper sheathing or bottom paint. You'll find many shadings of this color in the "boxcar colors" section of the modeling paint companies' model railroading selections. Verdigris is verdigris color. It's often sold as "copper green" or "verdigris. It's a fairly common color, so pick it off the color chart or rack in your  hobby shop. All I can say about colors is what I've said before: search the web for photographs and replicate the appearance of the real thing, always keeping scale in mind.  Refer to the pictures I posted in post #3 above. The "green" bottom is the vessel hauled and exposed to the air, hence the green oxidation, and the "brown bottom" is the vessel with new copper just applied and about to be launched. 
 
You can use whatever sealer and primer you wish on your wood, providing that your later coats will stick to it. Anything and everything sticks to shellac. I prefer using shellac because it is very thin and soaks into the wood and dries very quickly. Its thinness doesn't build up on parts and "thicken" crisp details. It also cleans up easily with alcohol. You should sand lightly after sealing, but make sure not to sand so much that you remove all of your sealer in spots. If you do, reapply the sealer and sand lightly again. You can spray shellac if you wish, but you'll need to clean your airbrush with alcohol, of course. I find it easier to brush it on, since it soaks right into the wood and brush strokes are not an issue with shellac. Recognize that acrylic coatings often will not adhere well to oil-based coatings, so if you are using acrylic top coats, you'd be well-advised to test your acryllic top coat material on any oil-based  undercoat you may have used. When using different types of coatings it is always best to spray test pieces before you shoot the real deal. 
 
"Some brush strokes with a fan-shaped brush" will not make your hull look more realistic. It will make it look like you are a poor painter who leaves brush strokes when you paint because you don't know how to condition your paint. In the scale you are working with, I'd say you'd be better off forgetting about trying to "make it look realistic" beyond painting it.  At your scale viewing distance, the individual plates aren't going to be discernable, really. If you want to apply paper "plates," you can do so, but you should be careful to apply plates that are of scale thickness. These can be applied using shellac as an adhesive and then shellacking the whole hull afterwards. You will, of course, have to take care also to apply those plates in the proper orientation correctly lined off and so on. That would be extremely tedious, however. The bottom of your model isn't an area that contains much detail and the viewer's eye isn't drawn to it. There's no point in distracting from the finer details of the model with an out of scale and improperly colored coppering job. There is a reason why a realistically depicted coppered bottom on a ship model is an extremely rare thing to encounter. 
 
Your hull will not look better by failing to sand it well. In fact, it will look bad. The whole point of an airbrush is to apply paint thinly so it doesn't build up and ruin the crispness of scale detail. Any lack of sanding is going to be more apparent after having been spray painted. You must sand your hull and topsides until they are as smooth as a baby's bottom.  I use 220 grit for coarse sanding, followed by 320 for finer sanding. I will spray color coats after sanding to 320, but I will sand between finish coats with 600 grit. The sanding must be perfectly smooth with no scratches, nicks or dings. It must also be totally free of all dust. Blow the worst of it off with compressed air (if you have it), then wipe the workpiece down with a tack rag (available at any paint store.) Follow the instructions on the tack rag package or have somebody show you how to use it. If you fold it correctly, you can get a lot of use out of a tack rag. You should also store it in a ziplock plastic sandwich bag after you open its original packaging and it will last you a good long while. Only a tack rag will pick up any dust from the surface, which is what it is designed to do. "Cleanliness is next to godliness" as they say.
 
On a large painted area like a hull, should dust specks end up on the painted surface, these can be removed after the paint dries by hand rubbing with pumice and rottenstone applied to a cloth dampened with water. 
 
See: Amazon.com: Vallejo Game Color Verdigris Paint, 17ml : Arts, Crafts & Sewing
 
Modeling Verdigris: The Weathered Patina of Copper Roofing - Bing video
 
 
 
 

Like everyone else, I, too, have always experienced excellent service from Byrnes Model Machines. As an aside, I will share that I am now at the stage of my career when I'm easing into retirement, and am now operating a limited professional practice as a "solo" practitioner rather than as the managing partner of a firm with associates and support staff. Like the Byrneses, I am sure, I find myself under the continual pressure to meet my clients' unreasonable time expectations. It isn't that they are intentionally unreasonable, but they just don't understand that I don't have "operators standing by to take your call." The current communications technology has created the expectation of instant responses and instant gratification. A small family business, or, as in my case these days, a small solo professional practice, cannot provide instant email or phone responses nor guarantee "overnight shipping." It's just not possible. Sometimes there's just more of it than there is of you. Sometimes you need to take a vacation. Sometimes you catch a cold or just need a damn day off. There seems a continual parade of posts on MSW from forumites asking (or complaining about) why they haven't heard back from one or another "micro-business" supplier (e.g Model Machines, Syren Ship Models, Seawatch Books, Alexy Domanoff, etc.) because they haven't received an immediate reply to their email or phone call. Specialty ship modeling suppliers are often very small niche businesses. Reports are that the customer base for modeling products is less than a million nationwide in the U.S. and quickly decreasing because most hobbyists are over the age of 55. Let's try to remember that we are often dealing with "little guys" who are doing the best they can to keep up selling to a very small customer base with often quite small profit margins. Good things are worth waiting for! Let's give 'em a break! Amazon they ain't.  

Like everyone else, I, too, have always experienced excellent service from Byrnes Model Machines. As an aside, I will share that I am now at the stage of my career when I'm easing into retirement, and am now operating a limited professional practice as a "solo" practitioner rather than as the managing partner of a firm with associates and support staff. Like the Byrneses, I am sure, I find myself under the continual pressure to meet my clients' unreasonable time expectations. It isn't that they are intentionally unreasonable, but they just don't understand that I don't have "operators standing by to take your call." The current communications technology has created the expectation of instant responses and instant gratification. A small family business, or, as in my case these days, a small solo professional practice, cannot provide instant email or phone responses nor guarantee "overnight shipping." It's just not possible. Sometimes there's just more of it than there is of you. Sometimes you need to take a vacation. Sometimes you catch a cold or just need a damn day off. There seems a continual parade of posts on MSW from forumites asking (or complaining about) why they haven't heard back from one or another "micro-business" supplier (e.g Model Machines, Syren Ship Models, Seawatch Books, Alexy Domanoff, etc.) because they haven't received an immediate reply to their email or phone call. Specialty ship modeling suppliers are often very small niche businesses. Reports are that the customer base for modeling products is less than a million nationwide in the U.S. and quickly decreasing because most hobbyists are over the age of 55. Let's try to remember that we are often dealing with "little guys" who are doing the best they can to keep up selling to a very small customer base with often quite small profit margins. Good things are worth waiting for! Let's give 'em a break! Amazon they ain't.  

Like everyone else, I, too, have always experienced excellent service from Byrnes Model Machines. As an aside, I will share that I am now at the stage of my career when I'm easing into retirement, and am now operating a limited professional practice as a "solo" practitioner rather than as the managing partner of a firm with associates and support staff. Like the Byrneses, I am sure, I find myself under the continual pressure to meet my clients' unreasonable time expectations. It isn't that they are intentionally unreasonable, but they just don't understand that I don't have "operators standing by to take your call." The current communications technology has created the expectation of instant responses and instant gratification. A small family business, or, as in my case these days, a small solo professional practice, cannot provide instant email or phone responses nor guarantee "overnight shipping." It's just not possible. Sometimes there's just more of it than there is of you. Sometimes you need to take a vacation. Sometimes you catch a cold or just need a damn day off. There seems a continual parade of posts on MSW from forumites asking (or complaining about) why they haven't heard back from one or another "micro-business" supplier (e.g Model Machines, Syren Ship Models, Seawatch Books, Alexy Domanoff, etc.) because they haven't received an immediate reply to their email or phone call. Specialty ship modeling suppliers are often very small niche businesses. Reports are that the customer base for modeling products is less than a million nationwide in the U.S. and quickly decreasing because most hobbyists are over the age of 55. Let's try to remember that we are often dealing with "little guys" who are doing the best they can to keep up selling to a very small customer base with often quite small profit margins. Good things are worth waiting for! Let's give 'em a break! Amazon they ain't.