Nelson’s Checkers.

by John

British battleships at the time of Trafalgar 1805 mostly had adopted a paint scheme consisting of yellow and black stripes on the hull. Yellow ochre, because that was cheap and visible, and lamp black because that was cheap and contrasted well with the yellow.

Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson, recommended that all ships under his command adopted the stripes, although the final decision was always up to the ship’s captain. The reason for the stripes was two-fold. First, it clearly identified British ships in the confusion and limited visibility of a naval battle battle, where there was a risk of friendly fire. Secondly, it clearly identified whether the gun ports were open or closed, an important consideration when entering a foreign port. When the gunports were open, the gunports looked quite different compared with when closed.

HMS Bellerophon 1815. Crowds hoping for a glimpse of Napoleon before his transportation to imprisonment on St Helena. Gunports were normally open when the ship was anchored, for ventilation of the gundeck and extra space with the guns run out.

My model of Bellerophon is at the stage of painting the yellow ochre and mat black stripes. I have many skills, but regretably painting is not one of them. SWMBO has banned me from any painting jobs around the house, but then she is a talented artist and has different standards. With Bellerophon she is happy to give advice, but not volunteering to do the painting. So I have read some model ship building books, and asked the AI for advice.

Armed with that information I purchased some yellow ochre acrylic paint, and some brushes. Sanded the hull to 600 grit. Filled most of the defects. Then applied a coat of sealer. SWMBO had some “Peel Stop” which the AI said would be fine, but said not to use Bondcrete which was an alternative I had considered.

What no-one thought to say to me was “remove all pencil lines BEFORE applying the sealer”. In my ignorance I assumed that the paint would cover the pencil lines. So I painted on the sealer, and then 4 coats of diluted yellow ochre.

That is after the first one or two coats of yellow ochre. Look closely and you can see the pencil marks. Those marks were still visible after 4 coats of dilute yellow ochre! What to do??? SWMBO said “sand off all of the paint and sealer and pencil marks and start painting again.” That did not appeal. Fortunately I had made the marks only on the starboard side so I thought “I will only display the port side”. But on reflection I knew that was unacceptable. Note also the painting on the foredeck partition. That came up quite well I thought.

Then I had a another idea.

Not ideal, but worth a try. I painted a layer of undiluted yellow ochre on the pencilled side. I was hoping to avoid that thicker paint because I did not want to lose the planking details, but better that than those very obvious pencil marks.

The other side, without any pencil marks…
With the thick paint the pencil lines are just visible in this magnified view. One more coat should make them invisible. But the colour is darker, and the plank joins and wood grain are also becoming invisible.

The black paint will neaten up the yellow-black junction. And I am pretty sure that pencil lines under the black paint will be invisible. Wont they?

We do learn from our mistakes, don’t we? I do. I try very hard not to repeat mistakes more than 3 times.