Paint Recipe | French Navy

I’ve been working my way up in ship sizes to the largest plastic model available in the Black Seas range: the 3rd rate. They come with generic figureheads and stern galleries on a standard 74-gun body. However, you can also purchase unique ships that come with their own bespoke ornaments cast in white metal. This particular example is the Bucentaure, of Trafalgar fame, that comes in the French Navy box. 

Before painting, the model needed a little bit of work. The metal stern galleries hang lower than the plastic ones do, which leave this gap at the bottom of the ship. I filled that in with green stuff to make it completely flush and extended the thin yellow line at the bottom of the gallery to the hull. 

Since the Royal Navy and French both use lots of yellow, I wanted to use a lighter tone to distinguish the two. I started with a base of AP Sulfide Ochre, then mixed it 25/75 with Vallejo Buff before highlighting with pure Vallejo Buff. The black is just AP Matt Black, drybrushed with AP Uniform Grey. As I mentioned in a previous post, I want a color to unify the disparate paint jobs of the different ships, and I chose blue for the French. The gun ports and inside of the hulls are painted with AP Deep Blue, which when combined with the almost golden yellow gives a very regal, royal look to the ship. 

The figurehead got a base of GW Liberator Gold then was washed with the now out of production GW Agrax Earthshade Gloss. I like to use this on metals to keep the shiny look while still darkening the recesses of the model. It also flows a little better in my opinion than the normal Agrax Earthshade. A bit of a bummer that they don't make it anymore, plus I spilled a large amount all over my mat, so double bummer. 

The Bull Centaur

The stern gallery was a proper challenge and a pain to paint. I started by painting it completely black, then carefully, very carefully, drybrushing the yellow on top. There was a lot of back and forth here, and to make it harder I decided to paint a minuscule French flag. Much cursing ensued. To finish it off I coated all of the windows with GW Ardcoat to give it a gloss sheen to imply glass. 

Finally, the deck was just GW Flayed One Flesh washed with AP Soft Tone diluted down with water. The deck detail and gun carriages were AP Leather Brown washed with AP Soft Tone. I sealed the whole model with Testors Matte Spray, then applied the gloss coat to the windows and yards to give it that shine. 

I'm happy with how this model came out. It's been sitting half-painted for a few months now as I grappled with the what yellow I wanted to achieve before I got the paint color from the Warlord Games website. Mixing it with the Ochre makes it less bright and a little bit closer to the actual ship color in my opinion. I was also surprised to see that the 3rd rates aren't much larger than the American super frigates in terms of length, but they are heavier and girthier (ha) because of all of the extra guns they carry. 

-The Space Dinosaur