Modelling the AMS60 – Part 3 – An Infrastructure Journey

In this part we will focus on painting the hull and the smaller parts. We will also show how to choose between using the PLA 3D-printed railing or using brass Railing Scepters. For our test-model we used brass railing and wire, as that looks much better on the model. But this requires more modelling work (and extra money to spend on the brass parts and wires)

The paint

Finding the correct colors can be a challenge and real world colors might not look the exactly the same as expected on a model. I went for lifecolor paint and used some cheap gray base-coat from Action for the first 2 ~ 3 layers.

The colors I used for the Royal Dutch Navy AMS60 Minesweepers hull and deck, but feel free to use other paints/colors, as long you try to keep it consistent over your models.

I used a brush for most of the paint work, only the base-coat was applied using spray paint can. If you have access to an airbrush setup you could use that. I did not have the patience to do that on this model and I think it also shows you will get good results if you use a regular brush.

When working with the Lifecolor paints be aware that you need a minimum of 3 layers of paint. The first 2 layers will never give 100% covering of your paint. Make sure you give the paint time to dry between each layer.

Hull	Light Grey	UA 633 / Admiralty (507C)
	Red	UA 637 / Royal Navy Hull Red
	Black	LC 02 / Matt Black (FS 37038)
Deck	Dark Grey	UA 631 / Admiralty Drak Grey (507 A)
	Wood Brown	UA 628 / Mahogany Stain
Pennant number	White	LC 01 / Matt White (FS *37925)

Lifecolor Hull and Deck paints used on the Testmodel

Base-coating the hull

At this stage you should have a prepared hull. Like the picture below. The rudders are not glued yet, so ignore them. The more time you have spend on sanding etc, tho more smooth your model will look. And you will notice that after adding the first layers of base-coat the bumps, cracks, etc will be better visible which makes correcting more easy.

Apply the layers of base-coat, you will end up with something like the following pictures. Notice how the unevenness shows much better now. After each layer of base-coat, let it dry and sand if needed. Do not forget that this is a wooden boat, so some crack and unevenness might even be fine for this model. I used a total of 4 layers.

And this was the end result of the base-coat work. I add the resin part for a nice picture. Remember, for now we only focus on the hull.

Painting the Hull

You will need some modelling masking tape, without it it will be rather difficult to get nice straight lines.

Start with painting the bottom part of the Hull Red. Place the masking tape, take your time, make sure that the tape both sides of the hull is at the same location. Also make sure the masking tape covers the small slits etc. As you do not want paint to flow in the slits etc. You will need to apply a minimum of 3 layers. When done, slowly remove the masking tape.

The first layer of Royal Navy Hull red Applied

Adding the black line; now you will need to add two strips of masking tape on both side of the hull. The black line should be about 3 mm high. As you can see some black paint flowed under the masking tape. The black paint covers rather well, so I only applied 2 layers. As I did not press it enough, but in this case it will be corrected when we add the Light grey to the hull.

Adding light grey to the hull and deck-house; Again place masking tape on the hull, which should be easy, just follow the black line you applied. Apply the Light Grey paint, I need 4 layers before I was happy with the result. Do not forget to paint the inside of the boarding light Grey.

The paint will need to dry and harden a bit before you can move on. As the paint will stay soft for a day or 2. Finally you can paint the deck-house using Light Grey. Do not worry if you get some paint on the deck, as that will be painted with Dark grey in the next step. I also painted the wale of the ship and the protruding upper deck wale part black. This I did without any tape, so a slow and careful process. I have seen pictures in which these parts are painted Light Grey like the rest of the hull. But I liked the extra black on the hull.

Next step, painting the front-deck for the anchor storage black.

Painting the Deck

For this test-model I painted the front-deck (G-deck) and top-deck (F-deck) dark-grey and the rear-deck (H-deck) wood brown. I used no masking tape, but carefully painted everything by hand. Notice the extra hole in the rear-deck for an anchor spindle, that is not original and will be removed. And will not be part of the model.

Drak-grey done, wood brown just the first layer, it needed 4 layers.

Adding the pennant number

This will be a more challenging painting job. There is no historical correct character set matching the type used by the Dutch navy (I could not find it). Somebody pointed me to RH Carrier Stencil, which is close enough, but for example the 4 is different. I first created a template and used that to paint the general outline of the number on the hull.

First I printed the number M845 in black, than cut the black letters from the paper using a hobby knife. Notice the difference between the printed 4 and cut out 4. I used masking tape to place the template and tried to make paint the pennant number as good as possible.

Template and creation and final paint job

I might get myself a cutting machine, as that would make it much more simple to create any templates I need.

Railing – 3D-printed or Brass scepters

The testmodel will be using brass railing with modelling wire. I hope this will look better compared to using the 3D-printed railing, but will costs up to 50 Euro on brass and wire. The model does come the 3D-printed railing so use what you prefer.

I ordered my brass components from Krikke modelbouw Groningen.

All the 3D-printed railing. Painted Light grey.

For the brass components it is required to drill holes in the hull using a small hand drill. I use 10 ~ 11 mm high posts and these require 1 mm drill. Be careful when drilling in the hull, you do not want to drill through the side of the hull.

We need a total of 10 posts for the rear deck. Before we can start to drill we need to align the posts with the other components on the deck. Find the 4 resin parts as shown below. I already painted them, but that’s not needed, we only require the parts for alignment. The parts are not yet glued on the deck.

First drill the holes for post 1 on both side of the deck. Use the resin parts to find the correct location. Next drill the 2 holes closest to the boarding, the other 2 posts need to placed 1.75cm from the other 2. And as said, make sure you drill not to deep and stay away from the side of the hull. You do not want to drill through the side. Do not forget to align the holes in the posts. Use a small drop of supper glue when inserting the posts in the hull. If needed you can bent the posts a bit for better aligning the posts. You can also use the PLA railing from the kit to measure to location of the posts.

Placing the final 2 posts at the rear deck. Drill 2 final holes in the rear-deck and we are done with the brass posts at the rear. And as you might be able to see, I did drill to deep and the drill just came out of the back. I still need to do a lot of paint correction work. And do notice that in the first picture the rear-deck almost looks like made of real wood.