HOME

Site Map
Awards page


Model main page
Model page menu

BUILD GUIDES
Armour models
General models

SCI-FI MODELS
Starfury
Venator Star destroyer
Klingon cruiser
Modded "Maquis" fighter

Building a "Venator" class Star destroyer

Section 9  :- Highlighting Venator body

Now the main colour has dried it is time to do the highlighting.  Looking at the paint guide Revell gave me it did not look right compared to the film & again trawling the net others agreed, so what next?  I could have used other model makers very good guides on the colours, but again my view is bar asking the actual model makers or George himself I went for a "feel" of what looked right but again ships that have been in battle will, in my view, have repaints from time to time.

The 3 main colours I used to highlight the panels on the model were

A - matt ocean grey (Humbrol 106 & Revell paint letter H)
B - matt steel grey (Humbrol 87 & Revell paint letter F)
C - light grey (Humbrol 196)

Using the Revell paint view as a guide I did some each of the colours A & B in turn for the panels I chose then left them to dry & started on the next colour.  I then just used colour C to act as a highlight colour on a few panels & also will be used on the main cannons later.

The underside has according to the Revell guide has a lot  more panels, especially towards the rear of the ship, that need highlighting. This to me did not sound right & again looking at the film should not see as much, so I decided to do a lower level of panel painting ( model making accurists can start screaming now).

The side panels of the ship were first highlighted & fine randomly weathered with all of the 3 colours used on the top & underside.  When this had dried I did a very fine weathing of the top to show "dirt" or  where  the paint  had been damaged & then repainted.

SECTION 9  :- Reddening the Venator

The Venator has got a main bands of red going down the centre of the ship on the top & bottom & then five stripes on the edges to the rear.  For this I used thin masking tape to mark out where the stripes were to go.

After earlier watching the film again ( good excuse) I noticed that the red shade was very similar to a Humbrol colour I had in for earlier models called Matt wine.  This would go well with the matt shading of the ship so after a good mixing it was very lightly painted to just over the masking tape.

When the paint was only half dry I removed the tape to stop the paint having a sharp edge to it.  I only gave it a light coat as this would only give a muted colour to the  stripes & give a weathered look to start with.

I used the same method on the larger red sections that are on the top & underside of the ship. 

All that was left to do was to fit the 8 main cannons that had been painted with light grey (Humbrol 196) & then a couple dry brushes with matt steel grey (Humbrol 87) & put on the decals.  As the model is a matt base I varnished the decals with a matt varnish to help them stay on the model. 

Revell made this kit without a base but maybe when I decide to build another one of these that will be on my scratch build list & maybe think of lighting this kit & doing more with the painting ..........