GPM Conte di Cavour 1:200

[rumbeard]

So things are coming along, but I have resigned myself to the fact that I will need to paint, putty, and touch up the hull as well as several other tiny spots. One of the hull panels didn't fit so well and required trimming. As I move forwards from the stern, however, the panels do fit better. The one thing that makes me less hesitant this time to do touch up is if I match the colors well, my new airbrush should allow me to add very tiny streams with low flow and blend into the paper look.

[emanuele]

Just remember that the hull of all the Italian ships during WWII and WWI were GREEN, not red. So, in any case, you have to recolour the hull.

[rumbeard]

This appears true for Giulio Caesar but not Conte. The kit and a lot of imagery online that is a drawing is red bottomed. I see the occasional bottom green from my Italian Navy lifecolor paint kit on some ships like Caesar her sister.

[rumbeard]

Then again it looks like there are Roma model kits with both colors so it's not exactly clear. Maybe they changed some ships away from Italian Moravian.

[emanuele]

No, no

I can assure you, I had a discussion a long time ago in betasom.it, which is an Italian forum dedicated to the Italian navy full of history experts. ALL the italian warships of WWII had the hulls green, if it is red is wrong. It can be red during construction, but when the ships went on the dry shipyard, they were repainted green, that was the standard colour of the Regia Marina. The Conte di Cavour was modernised in the middle of the '30s, so it was green. The same is true for all the Littorio class, Littorio, Vittorio Veneto and Roma, their hull was GREEN.

[rumbeard]

Then this begs the question why are all the kits from Trumpeter and GPM wrong?

[rumbeard]

So the hull is skinned. Next stop fairing the seams with sand paper, applying the bare minimum of putty, and sanding that. In between I'll decide how much of the rudder and screw mounts to apply or if I want to paint them separately. Masking will be done and I've decided per input here to change the hull colour to anti-fouling green from the Lifecolor Italian WWII set.

[rumbeard]

[rumbeard]

First post fairing of seams.



Post putty

[rumbeard]

Masking and painting. (First two coats, will need a last one after all is dry)

I learned that after sanding I really should have re-sealed it. There is a slight skin sag but I think it will turn out OK.