Having assembled the ship's hull and the lower part of its superstructure, I then dusted it with primer and then did a bit of checking to see what colour I ought to paint the ship. I found a copy of the painting instructions for a 1/350 Dunkerque kit on a hobby shop website and took note of the paint scheme; dark sea grey for the vertical sides; navy blue for the most of the metal deck surfaces, and wood brown for the remaining decks. I dug up a bottle of Tamiya's dark sea grey and added some white paint to it lighten it. I then fished out one of my airbrushes.
After purchasing a can of air brush propellant, I went to work. I found that the propellant lacked sufficient air pressue possibly because of the cooler temperature outside (I was working on my veranda). In spite of that difficulty I managed to get this far.
I didn't paint the sides of the hull because of the air pressure issue.
I then set about to painting the funnel cap and the decks. I chose to use Tamiya's "Rubber Black" for the funnel cap. The reason for that is because it isn't a pure black. It is a bit lighter and has a slight grey tinge to it. The decks are painted US Navy Blue with a paint from a Lifecolor (sic) set of USN paints.
Around the same time I laid out some of the smaller parts on strips of masking tape and gave them a shot of primer.
I'm probaby going to paint the ship's boats next and start attaching them to the decks. The light AA guns, cranes, and masts will be attached last. The paravanes, small AA rangefinders, searchlights, and other miscellaneous parts will be attached to their respective subassemblies before finding their way onboard the ship. The capstains, anchors, and chains will find their way into position depending on my whims. The absolutely last thing to be placed on the ship will be the Loire 130 flying boat (visible upside down in the above photo).
