Rudder painted white?

[Dave_E]

Hi All,

 

Getting ready to paint the Lady's hull white. I've seen several models (of many different ships) where they did not have the rudder painted white and the rudder hinges not painted either. I'm going to guess this might be for athetics and not historically accurate? Input?

[starlight]

Hi Dave,

 

Perhaps an expert can chime in here, but my thoughts are:

 

The white "paint" was not just for show in real life, it was an anti-fouling coating to inhibit the growth of barnacles and other marine life which would increase the hydrodynamic drag on the hull, slowing the ship down.

 

Therefore it would make sense to paint everything below the waterline, including the pintles and gudgeons (the two parts of the rudder hinges). Whether or not you choose to as an aesthetic matter is a different story entirely.

 

-starlight

[mtaylor]

Starlight is correct, IMO.   It's your model and your the captain so it's your choice, Dave.

[Dave_E]

38 minutes ago, starlight said:

Hi Dave,

 

Perhaps an expert can chime in here, but my thoughts are:

 

The white "paint" was not just for show in real life, it was an anti-fouling coating to inhibit the growth of barnacles and other marine life which would increase the hydrodynamic drag on the hull, slowing the ship down.

 

Therefore it would make sense to paint everything below the waterline, including the pintles and gudgeons (the two parts of the rudder hinges). Whether or not you choose to as an aesthetic matter is a different story entirely.

 

-starlight

Concur completely. So… wanting to be more accurate than not… rudder will match the hull waterline.

[Dr PR]

As I understand it, the "white paint" for hull bottoms was actually a yellowish off-white mixture of white lead, tallow, and a few other things like sulfur that made a foul gunk nothing would want to live on. However, I know of no reference that says just how "off-white" it was.

[allanyed]

Dave,

 

A number of contemporary hull block models can be seen on the RMG site that show the white bottoms.  For some examples of 60 gun ships for instance go to  https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/search/60 gun ship full hull block models 

 

You can find a lot more examples of other rates on their collections site.    One of the things I found odd was that  most of the contemporary block models from after 1782, when copper sheathing became the norm, mostly have white painted bottoms.  I did find one photo of a contemporary block model a  with copper colored painted bottom which looks far better than the out-of-scale plates found in modern kits.  

 

Allan