Paddleducks
Paddler Modelling => Construction => Topic started by: Eddy Matthews on June 19, 2005, 05:52:56 AM
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George,
I'm about at the stage where I need to start painting the Suter, and wondered if you could help with the colours?
I have your photos, and I can see that the hull is black with a basically white superstructure, but the main deck is a sort of light blue, and there is red trim around the deck edges etc etc.
Can you advise on what shade of blue and what red I need to use please? If you could refer to Humbrol colors (or similar modelling paints) it will be easier to get the right one rather than attempting to describe it!
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Hi Eddy,
I just saw your message and I'll try and do a lookup on Humbrol colors and get back with you. The colors were taken from a handtinted photo that was published in the book that I read. I'm assuming that if someone went to the trouble of handtinting the photo they would have used something close to the original. The hull and edge of the main deck is black. All of the superstructure is white. The paddlewheel and the rear wall of the vessel is orange. The paddlewheel also has yellow trim on the rings. The deck tops are infact blue, but they are several shades darker than the photos that I have posted. The trim around each of the upper decks is a bright red. The smokestacks are black with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers emblems at the top. The lettering on the rear wall and sides is black and done in a block style printing. The lettering on the pilothouse is white on a red trim band. The style is a fancy serif type lettering. As stated, I will try to get a list of Humbol colors and get back with you.
George
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Just a note..not all handtinting is the correct colours
For instance the Murray in many postcards that were hand tinted was made blue...which isn't exactly correct
Tinting was often made just to make the picture have a bit of a wow fctor before colour photos came into peoples lives
it was often used int he portrait industry (as in people portraits) to slightly liven up dresspatters or buttons or hat rims!
So accuracy was not always correct!
(Photography is a career I've been in all my life...family business!)
Anyway theres my hand fro the day! :D
Cya round
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Eddy,
I found a good site with the Humbrol colors shown and picked out the colors that come close to what I used.
French Blue #14
Bright Red #19
Orange #18
Yellow #69
My only suggestion would be to brighten up the orange a little by adding some yellow to it.
I hope this helps
George
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That's superb George thanks!
The French blue is a LOT darker than it appears on the photos of your model - I assume that's just the photos that are distorting the colour?
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Eddy,
I realize that the French Blue is alot darker but I couldn't find anything in the Humbrol chart that was close. You could add a little White to it to lighten it up some. As I said, the photos that I have posted are much lighter than the actual color.
George
The following message was posted on Paddleducks, by Eddy Matthews
That's superb George thanks!
The French blue is a LOT darker than it appears on the photos of your model - I assume that's just the photos that are distorting the colour?
Regards
Eddy
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Hi George,
I also noticed that the colours you've selected are gloss - Since the blue in particular is primarily on the decks, would it be better to use a matt paint? I can't imagine that the decks would be gloss as they would be very slippery when wet...
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Eddy,
I'm sure you're right about that. I just figured that if the model got wet it would be easier to wipe down if the paint had a little gloss to it. Maybe something like a semi-gloss.
George
Hi George,
I also noticed that the colours you've selected are gloss - Since the blue in particular is primarily on the decks, would it be better to use a matt paint? I can't imagine that the decks would be gloss as they would be very slippery when wet...
Regards
Eddy
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Eddy, give some thought to using model railway paints. They are generaly of better quality than most model paints and come in a much larger range of colours, and more importantly they come in a satin finish, approaching semi matt and are much better for handling, resisting greasy fingers and the odd splash of lager. Your best local stockist is the model railway shop beside the Civic theatre in Yarm Road, darlington.( You can park outsde). I have used railway paints for many years and am amazed by the vast range of colours and shades available. Reagards, Walter.
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Eddy, give some thought to using model railway paints.
Now he tells me! When I've just come upstairs after painting the matt blue decks etc on the Suter :-)
Oh well, I'll have to try the model railway paints on my next model Walter!
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The Suter build continues - Now with the main paintwork done, The blue decks look very dark in these photos, but they aren't quite as dark in real life.
Hopefully next week will see me with a bit more spare time to make some real progress on some of the finer detail, and maybe even getting down to sorting out the drive system - I've been putting that off for long enough now!!
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She's looking great Eddy. Well done.
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Looks great Eddy. It takes on a whole different character when you start putting paint on it. I can't wait to see it finished. Keep up the good work.
George
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Thanks George and Tony - Yes it certainly does change character totally when the paint is applied! Apart from liking the boat generally, it was the colour scheme that really attracted me to it and made me want to build it in the first place - Since I'm totally colourblind, the contrast in colours makes it really stand out!
Hence all the questions asking about the colours - No point sending me a colour photo, it may as well be in black and white to me! :-) Though it actually does have it's plus side - I can tell even slight differences in tone, even though I can't tell you what colour it is!
And before anyone asks, I GO when the bottom traffic light comes on - So if your country has a different setup to that dont drive when I'm on the road! :-)
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I'd have to say the color scheme is different. George do you know when the C of E used this color scheme? All I've ever seen is the typical red decks with almond color cabins.
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Joe,
I took the picture from a fictional story book about life on the river. All of the photographs were black and white showing vessels that the Corps was using. In the frontpiece of the book was a picture of the Suter that had been handpainted (not in the book but before publishing). The colors on my model were from that picture. Elsewhere in the book was a black and white picture of the Suter and it showed different shades of gray with the same demarcation lines as the colored picture. I can't say that the colored picture is correct but as I had stated in one of my other posts, I would think that the person who hand tinted the photo would have tried to come close to the original but maybe not. Every bit of information that I could get about the Suter, which wasn't very much, was always black and white due to the time frame the boat operated. With that in mind, who's to say what's right or wrong. It kind of makes for a very attractive sternwheeler.
George
Paddleducks <construction@paddleducks.co.uk> wrote:
The following message was posted on Paddleducks, by towboatjoe
I'd have to say the color scheme is different. George do you know when the C of E used this color scheme? All I've ever seen is the typical red decks with almond color cabins.
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I've built several model for the Corps of Engineers and I thought I was a little senile, since in all my research, I've never seen that paint scheme. That's what's so cool about building your own boat. You can make it the way you want.
Here's a link to and old sidewheeled dredge that is a museum now in Iowa. Any of you guys planning a trip to the U.S. will want to plan this trip.
http://www.hnsa.org/ships/black.htm
The paint scheme is pertty much what it was in the 30"s from all the photos I've seen.
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Hi PD's - TBJ posted this site http://www.hnsa.org/ships/black.htm - at the bottom of the page there is a return to HNSA Guide - well worth a look - Derek
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Oh well, wether the colour scheme is right or wrong, it's staying as it is for three reasons...
#1. I've already painted it and I'm not masking it all up again to change it.
#2. I really like the colour scheme!
#3. Since I'm in the UK, only people that have read this forum will know it's wrong - So I can just bluff and tell em it's correct anyway! :-)
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It does look nice, but the I wouldn't say the color is wrong unless you were trying to accurately produce the boat. Besides the blame would lay with the illustrator who colored the drawing to start with. Anyone who grew up on the river here knows you don't paint the decks or hull blue because it's bad luck.
A good example is McGinnis & Sons near where I live. They were constantly having breakdowns with their boats and one or two sinkings a year. A couple of years ago they painted their boats black where they were once blue and seems like the "curse" has lifted.
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Great, now I've got a jinxed boat because I've painted it blue, and it hasn't even been on the water yet! :roll:
Seriously, where does that come from Joe? or is it one of those things where the reason has become lost over time?
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I guess that's like the old superstition about painting race cars green. At one time they wouldn't use green. I can't remember why or didn't know in the first place but now there are all kinds of green cars and there is no widespread carnage due to it. As I said previously, with all of the searching that I did I couldn't find any reference to the original colors so who's going to know the difference. If anyone can show me the original colors I'll pull my boat out of it's display case and repaint the whole thing. LOL.
George
Paddleducks <construction@paddleducks.co.uk> wrote:
The following message was posted on Paddleducks, by Eddy Matthews
Great, now I've got a jinxed boat because I've painted it blue, and it hasn't even been on the water yet! (http://www.paddleducks.co.uk/forum/images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif)
Seriously, where does that come from Joe? or is it one of those things where the reason has become lost over time?
Regards
Eddy
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I'm not sure where it came from. It's just an old superstition. Which would make a good "new topic". Somewhere I have some old superstitions wrote down that comes from the steamboat days. One was that a person always exit the door to the wheelhouse that they entered in.
Only thing I can say to you, Eddy is we'll just have to see if folk lore holds true to models too :lol: