Kzinti Alternate Paint Scheme

[Darkwing]

Those are pretty cool looking. I like these alternate paint schemes. Are you envisioning them as different fleets (Federation border, Lyran border, Klingon border) or just different schemes mixed among the standard colors?

[marcus_aurelius]

Thanks. I did the scheme just for variety. I will mix and match them in scenarios with my other ships. Although, they would be very useful to play a Kzinti civil war. I will be posting these same pictures and a few more over the next few days in the Starline 2400 painting examples topic.

[bluebirds38]

those look pretty cool great job.

[djdood]

I'm impressed by all those nice, clean edges on all the different paint segments.

[marcus_aurelius]

Thanks! Tamiya painters tape for 80%, the last 20% by hand with a lot of touch ups.

[marcus_aurelius]

I have been wanting to do these 2400 vs. 2500 comparison pictures for awhile now.

Here are my alternate paint schemes as I converted them from 2400 BCHs to the 2500 BCHs.

I made the red on the brown ships a brighter red for greater contrast; I am undecided on whether I like the bolder red or more subtle red more.

I had to do some of the colored striping slightly differently because of the detail molding on the 2500s.

The 2400s are clean and the 2500s have some black/brown/rust watercolor weathering.

It was actually easier for me to do this painting on the 2400s.

[mdauben]

Here are my alternate paint schemes as I converted them from 2400 BCHs to the 2500 BCHs.

Some more very nice paint jobs there!

I like the striping on both ships, it provides a very nice additional detail without straying too far from the "official" paint scheme as to be unrecognizably Kzinti. I may give some serious thought to borrowing some of your ideas.

[marcus_aurelius]

Kzinti Dreadnought, Light Cruisers and Frigates




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[trynda1701]

Those latest Kzinti SL2500's are beautifully painted. Is that another red base coat, or just the black background making it look different from the original red on the SL2400's earlier in the thread?

Mark

[marcus_aurelius]

Thanks! It is the same Tamiya Mica Red Acrylic Spray (red ships) and Tamiya Red Brown Acrylic Spray (brown ships) on all my 2400 and 2500 Kzinti.

The change in appearance would probably be from two reasons:
1. the black background
2. these new shots were done outside in late afternoon sunlight; the earlier shots were inside with a mix of natural and artificial light

[CarlZog]

OK, as a neophyte painter, I have to ask: What's your method for painting the rectangular white porthole lights?

Maybe I'm using crappy brushes, but I seem unable to create that kind of detail.

[marcus_aurelius]

First the windows are molded holes in the ship.

Here is what I did:
1. finish all other painting, decals and weathering on the ship
2. spray with several light coats of dullcoat
3. use a 5-0 brush and paint the windows with white watercolor paint; it was NOT perfect because some paint spills out of the holes
4. very lightly wipe the excess away with a slightly damp paper towel
5. finish with a very light spray of dull coat.

For steps 3-4 it took a lot of practice to get the paint amount, dampness of towel, etc correct. Too much water/wiping and all the paint is taken away. Sometime it took a few attempts.

For step 5, upon initial dullcoat spray the white paint goes transparent and slowly returns to white as the dullcoat drys

[Sneaky Scot]

Those look fabulous. Can I ask where you got the bases? I was looking at Corsec Engineering but they're hard to find in the UK.

[marcus_aurelius]

These are actually CorSec Engineering bases. 2" Black Hex.

[Sneaky Scot]

Thanks Marcus. I thought the posts looked the same but I hadn't seen the black bases before.