Night Boat to Cairo....ACW Painting Part 9

After the relative flurry of activity of the last week and the excitement of getting the first of my ACW ships painted, reality has set in once again and it is of course time to push on with the next batch. The second nine vessels (the choice of number has purely been coinidental!) are all Union and are the seven city class gunboats (including the Cairo - pictured above in her display venue), the Essex and the Benton. The painting technique for these has varied slightly from the Confederate ships in that I have painted the decks first (using Humbrol HC5 - Mast Oak) before moving on to the metalwork. These have now received two coats and so this evening will see the hulls duly painted in a base coat of very dark German panzer grey colour. I think I will be able to get these models painted by the time I go away on holiday although I will have the extra complication of painting funnel bands on the city class - something I am not looking forward to!