Painting Tutorial HMS Avon Vale 1/1800 scale WW2
HMS Avon Vale patrolling the waves
Hello everyone and welcome to the Thousand Worlds Blog.
Today’s episode? Issues? Editions? Ramble? Lets go with ramble…
In today’s ramble we’ll be looking at the painting and history of HMS Avon Vale. A small and unassuming ship of the Hunt class of escort destroyers of the Royal Navy in WW2.
Why the Avon Vale? Admittedly the first thing that drew me to using her as the example of the Hunt class was her name. A drive I have done many times in the Scottish Central belt (where I am based) goes through a steep valley called Avon Gorge Southwest of Linlithgow. Tenuous link but welcome to how my mind works!
But back to the ship.
Avon Vale, as mentioned before, was a Hunt class escort destroyer, specifically a Type II. With a length of 85.3m and a beam of 9.6, Hunt’s were far from the largest ships. Their purpose was, as the name implies, to escort vital convoys. HMS Avon Vale served extensively in the Mediterranean and was damaged repeatedly in defence of convoys and Allied warships. On 29th of January 1943 the ship suffered major damage after being struck by an aerial torpedo. After temporary repairs she had to await the chance to be towed back for permanent repairs. HMS Avon Vale was repaired and survived the War and her final fate was to be scrapped in Sunderland 1958.
With that brief history of the ship covered we can now move onto how I painted the 1/1800 scale model in my Royal Navy fleet.
Priming – done simply with a black spray primer, mainly because I utterly detest manually priming!
Next the deck is panted with Ospedale Grey from TTCombat
Now the vertical surfaces are painted Frosted Edge… messily… I’m not neat…
The creative part! Painting the camouflage pattern on, for this I used Citadel paint’s Death Guard Green. I also pick out the top of the funnel in black.
Now the whole model is washed with Nuln Oil, in some circles this is called liquid skill for how it instantly picks out details. With the wash the ship is done and its onto the base.
The base is first painted with Night Lords Blue.
Next waves are painted on using 100% Ahriman blue
Edges of the waves are picked out with a 50/50 blend of Ahriman blue and white.
Now the base is washed with Coelia Greenshade. I find this gives the sea a richer colour. Once this is dry, the very edges of waves are picked out in white and the embossed ships name is also painted in white. Now HMS Avon Vale is ready for battle!