With construction of the hull and turret complete, I proceeded to prime and paint. Going with a gray primer, I used a splotch template to add irregular patterns. The base colors were sprayed over this, very thin, so that just a hint of the splotch pre-shading showed through. This required a bit of back and forth, as the red lower hull showed a lot of the pattern, so it needed a lot of paint, while the upper hull black covered the pattern very quickly, so I had to watch the paint build up very closely.
Once the colors were laid-in, it was time for a gloss coat and weathering. I went with mostly oils, using light grays, tans, and other earthy colors to give some contrast to the black paint. A little goes a long way, so I went light, and was pleasantly surprised how well the surface detail on the deck popped. The plating lines and bolt heads that I thought may have been too finely engraved, actually look amazing. Some of the finest detail I’ve seen in a styrene kit; while the fit of the model isn’t up to Tamiya or Flyhawk standards, the finesse of the detail does match those other manufacturers. With the lower hull painted, I added the prop and rudder assembly. Just a little filler was needed where the shaft and skeg attach to the hull, but nothing major.
I simplified the interior of the turret, since it’s going to be sealed and not visible. The kit comes with all of the supports, gratings, gun swabs, etc. The production kit will also come with 3D printed cannon balls, powder kegs, etc. I also added the ship’s boat to the main deck. This was supposed to be hanging from the davits, but I mounted it to the deck with some boat cradles I carved out of strip styrene; I was concerned with the styrene davits surviving any trips to shows, etc., with the much heavier boat hanging from them.
I went with the short, open stacks that Monitor used on her way to Hampton Roads. I’m not completely sure if they left these in-place during the battle, but she would have looked way to plain without them. Were I to build the kit again, I’d put some sort of grating at the bottom of the stacks, but as is, I used a bottle of “extreme black” paint on the inside of the four stacks. It’s much darker than the surrounding ship, so it does the trick.
As of now, that’s it. I’m working on the display base and case for the model. In the future I’ll look into maybe adding railings and some more turret exterior details, but I want to keep the “stripped for action” look, as she would have had at Hampton Roads.