A Dutch waterline

[Jean-Pierre]

I still have in my waiting room a rather nice half built model of a 17th century Dutch whaler, based on Sergal's Baleinera Olandese.  One of my first jobs will be to paint the lower hull off white.  I know that the waterline will NOT be parallel to the keel (the stem should be a little higher) and I will also try to have the waterline a little curved, that is raising fore and aft. 

I have been studying some paintings of Dutch merchant ships (especially flutes, as this is the type of ship I'm building, and indeed, the waterline is a little lower amidships.  Now I also took the precaution of looking at paintings by different artists, and also noticed that the waterline is always blurred, not sharp like the one I would obtain with masking tape.

 

I've never seen this done on a model, but I would find it another challenge to try to realise this curved, blurred line.  Biggest problem for me is that I do not work with a spray, only with brushes, and I suppose I shall have to make quite a few trials before I start on the hull.

 

Another problem is the colour:  I am aware of the poor coverage of white (or off white) paints, and would like to try with acrylic "one-layer" wall paint.  Has anyone tried this?  Any tips from other happy painters?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

JP

[mtaylor]

If it's paint for a house or building, the paint grains will be too large and thus the paint will be too thick for a model, JP.  As for your other questions, I have no clue.

[amateur]

Hi Jean Pierre,

 

I did a curved (but as crisp as possible) waterline on my Prins Willem.

I still like the appearances of it. (Did need some tweaking though, as the first coat was  more or less on visual inspection (aided by some painters tape)

 

with respect to the paint: I used the (cheap) acryllics from an art shop, quite heavily diluted for the first two layers, and slightly less dilluted for the final third layer.

I would expect the one-layer paints far to thick and heavy to gettheresult you are after. (I guess that youreach a blurry effect by using several overlapping layers, of ineven coverage.)

 

Jan

[Jean-Pierre]

Thanks, gentlemen, for your replies.   Your advice for the paint makes sense.  In any case, some serious trials for the "blurred" effect will be necessary.