After masking the black for the boot topping, the red was masked and the upper part of the hull sprayed with Italeri acrylic gray. This was a frustrating experience. The paint will just not behave properly in my Badger double-action airbrush. I tried various thinning ratios, but was not able to hit a mix that would perform for more than five or six seconds before splattering and running, or clogging up the works. I did manage to finish painting the hull, but resolved to brush paint the remainder of the gray parts. It does brush paint much better, but do not attempt to thin it with water (as the paint label calls for).

Removing the masking from the hull revealed that I am not as good at ship masking as I thought. The boot topping stripe in particular was not uniform – some of that gray paint had seeped underneath the tape and you know what that means. Touch up. I did that and got it looking respectable again.

Turning to the main and forecastle decks, I brush painted the gray sections and then laboriously scraped the oil “wood” paint off of the deck structures and fittings that would be painted gray. This was unnecessary because painting over the oil paint with the Italeri acrylic worked just fine. I did need to scrape oil paint off of items that would be receiving photo etch parts later, like the skylights and the seventy-eleven coal scuttle hatch covers. Oh, boy.

After the gray paint was dry, I moved to finding, preparing, and gluing the small deck fittings called for. A problem here. I think the molds for this sprue were not exactly even, as each part’s halves are just a smidgen offset. This, of course, results in seams and steps on everything. Cleaning these up, especially on the small parts, is a chore and an unnecessary one, especially for a kit at this price level.

I did get the opportunity to prepare a few of the photo etch structures. Not as many as I had planned, but that will have to wait for the next installment. I can say that the White Ensign Photo Etch set for this kit is outstanding. The metal is heavy enough to work well and hold its shape, but not too heavy that it is difficult to work with. The attachment of the parts to the metal sheet is done with very fine runs. These are very easy to sever with a scalpel and, if one is careful, can be cut close enough to the part that little or no cleanup with a file or sanding stick is necessary. I think this set will be a requirement to produce a worthy model of this historic ship.

Again, I would like to thank Dragon USA for supplying this kit and IPMS-USA for providing it to me for review. White Ensign’s PE set for the HMS Dreadnought can be found at https://www.whiteensignmodels.com/p/WEM+PE+1350+HMS+Dreadnought+PE+35155/9258/