Painting small patterns on wood

[Kathy Teel]

I'm going to be painting the small repeating patterns on the Golden Hind. Any suggestions on a method to keep sharp and crisp lines of color without bleed? I'll be working with acrylics by hand. 

[rkwz]

Hello Kathy,

 

Tamiya tape and a fine quality paint brush (I use GodHand brushes which keep their shape quite well)

 

Also making incisions using a sharp Xacto blade on the hull to mark out the pattern helps, not sure if it'll work for wood (I'm working on plastic)

 

 

Cheers,

[bruce d]

Hello Kathy,

You probably have this in hand but be sure the wood is sealed.  You could use WOP or shellac, maybe you have a favorite. Make sure it has had whatever time is needed for the product to cure plus a bit.

HTH,

Bruce

 

 

[shipman]

Don't forget to put darker colours over lighter ones.

 

I'm still not convinced these diagonal lozenge patterns are authentic.

Paint has always been expensive stuff to buy and apply. I would imagine the use of colour at that time may have been a purely for recognition and used on broad strakes.

 

KISS has always been a proven system, whatever the field. What do I know?

[rkwz]

5 hours ago, shipman said:

Don't forget to put darker colours over lighter ones.

 

I'm still not convinced these diagonal lozenge patterns are authentic.

Paint has always been expensive stuff to buy and apply. I would imagine the use of colour at that time may have been a purely for recognition and used on broad strakes.

 

Oh yes, and I forgot to mention a few coats of thinned paint works better...

 

As for the chevron design, I based my paint scheme on this image from a resource shared by Backer ... a concept sketch by Matthew Baker (Fragments of Ancient English shipwrightry) 

 

 

And a supposedly 16th century unattributed painting of the Armada in action vs English ships. It seems spanish ships had chevron patterns pointing towards the stern, while the English, towards the bow. I also felt the Pelican was probably less elaborately decorated compared to the "Queen's ships" and more of an "armed merchantman".

 

 

Of course the beauty of the Golden Hind is you could always let your imagination run riot and claim artistic license

 

[shipman]

Matthew Baker, the guy that came up with a ship which swallowed a giant mackerel and now this picture of flying ships.

What are you guy's taking?

Only kidding.😄.

[wefalck]

I gather there are several alternative ways to make life easier:

 

- paint the pattern onto strips of thin paper that has been cut to shape to exactly fit the strake on which it will be placed; the paper then can be cemented onto the wood using shellac

 

- paint the pattern onto water-slide transfer sheet shaped as above

 

- prepare strips of water-slide transfer cut these to size and place them as appropriate - can work also with strips of painted paper.

[shipman]

Good suggestions, wefalck.

If Kathy has the skill to draw her details in photoshop (or whatever it's called) she can then print onto paper or decal sheet. A word of warning, laser/inkjet pigments aren't very stable and prone to fading.

[wefalck]

That's why I did not suggest this, though there are 'archival' ink-jet inks on the market.

 

However, one can, of course, draw the pattern on the computer, laser-print it onto decal sheet, and then 'number-paint' the respective fields.

[allanyed]

Kathy,

Volume II, pages 24-30 of The Fully Framed Model by David Antscherl gives step by step instructions on the paint, brushes, and technique for even the most intricate of designs.  Worth the cost of the book just for this information.   Keep in mind there are acrylics, and there are acrylics.  Artist tubed acrylics are the best way to go when compared to the little bottles of craft paints.    

Allan

[Kathy Teel]

Very good information, thanks.