New Hydroplanes

It's off to Enfilade tomorrow.

In addition to preparing for Cowpens, I've painted some more hydroplanes. Painting hydros has been really fun. They are all historical from 1951-1965, so they are classic hulls. I painted a couple for Dave Demick. Miss B and I is interesting because it has the pink sides and cowl. It's supposed to have big block letters and I just couldn't get 'em right. I also painted Gale V for Dave. It is one of my favorite boats from my childhood. It is a foreign boat from Detroit, but it has great colors. The model turned out well too, despite my endless search for the right shade of yellow.

For myself, I painted boats that would have had dropped sponsons. Because the models don't show this, it means that some details that would have been easier to paint require a bit more care. I painted Miss Pay N Save. It's a beautiful boat with the striped tail. I just couln't get the pin stripes straight, but I really did enjoy painting the unique striped details on the hull. Miss Madison (1962) was a boat I chose because of the interesting color scheme. The blue on mahogany scheme was attractive, but the odd shaped tail with the black and white pinstripes was difficult.

The hardest part of painting the hydroplanes is trying to shape the tails properly. At the bottom of the tail it is difficult to fit it into the slot of the body. The other challenge is shape the top of the tails. Miss Madison and Bardahl had odd-shaped tails. I really struggled to get Madison's correct. My next boats will be Slo-Mo-Shun IV and Miss Spokane. Sl0-Mo has a tail like Bardahl's only larger, and Spokane has a free form tail. They'll be a challenge.