That blue anti-foul paint certainly stands out 

Quote from: NARSES2 on February 11, 2025, 05:04:37 AMThat blue anti-foul paint certainly stands out 

yes it does. It'll be a head turner at model contests for sure.     

its one of those things that isnt "normal" ( we all "know" anti fouling paint is red,)  but looks just so right   

Quote from: Steel Penguin on February 11, 2025, 09:57:51 AMits one of those things that isnt "normal" ( we all "know" anti fouling paint is red,)  but looks just so right   

It does indeed 

Quote from: Steel Penguin on February 11, 2025, 09:57:51 AMits one of those things that isnt "normal" ( we all "know" anti fouling paint is red,)  but looks just so right   

But the blue antifoul coating IS normal, at least in Canada. A few pics below of Canadian warships with blue antifoul coating. Are they applying this to their entire Navy/fleet, or just selected ships?

I screwed up and I'm not sure how to correct this, or even if I should.     
The black boot stripe has been painted black, and the hull portion under the black boot stripe painted blue. The only part left is the tip of the bulbous bow. I really thought I had the waterline marked correctly with TAMIYA yellow masking tape. But due to my poor eyesight, I guess I didn't. As you can see in the second picture below, the height of the two red lines do not match. The left red line which denotes the top of the black waterline stripe, does not connect to the center yellow line. I'm guessing the gap is probably about 1/16" inch or so.
I'm not sure how to correct this discrepency or even if it should be corrected. And then I also need to figure how I'm going to "curve" the black boot stripe around the front of the bulbous bow.

Some black decal stripe to touch it up?

I'd repair it; you're not so far down the wonky painting track that you can't afford to go back a couple of steps to get back onto the right track.

For complex curves like that I use 2mm tape to set the line & broader tape to mask back but, as you're hand painting, you probably don't need to do the latter.

A different method for the bow bulge:- use the 2mm tape above the desired black line to set the line (separate to the tape, below the main body of the black line, which marks the lower edge for the rest of the waterline stripe); mark it with a black line marking pen; remove the 2mm tape; then lay down some semi-translucent masking tape over the bulge & carefully get it down over the surface; carefully cut along the marked line with a sharp knife or razor blade; remove the bit over where you want to paint ... There will be folds in the tape, cut them down & gently buff down the edges prior to painting ... Join the 2mm tape up to the bulge tape so the edges align & buff down to prevent bleeding.

Unfortunately, it's not a very photogenic process, so I don't have any pictures of what I'm trying to describe.

So as I'm viewing my FB news feed tonight, I see in a few model groups that some people have already gotten the new Trumpeter 1/350 scale USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier model kit which has just been released. While I wish I could afford to buy the kit as well, I'm going to have to pass on it. No way am I spending anywhere from $350-$450 on it. Too expensive for my tastes. Even if and when I get my tax refund, I'm still not going to buy it. It's a nice kit, but I've got other priorities I need to spend my money on. The Ford isn't one of them.
Pictures of what the kit looks like are below.
If I had saved my money and waited to buy that kit now, then that's the kit I would have used and turned into a new what if future stealth carrier instead of kit bashing and scratch building my own what if futuristic carrier.

If that island slips any further aft it'll fall right off, and then what will they do to steer the thing? 

She's an impressive looking beast. Thanks for the images 

Carrier project now on temporary hold as I await a new work lamp that I ordered to be delivered sometime next week. In one of my pics further above, you can see a small black desk lamp I was using. That isn't working out very well.   So I ordered a new larger desk lamp today.

Interesting design. Be interested to hear how it works out 

Well, I think I've gone as far as I can go on finishing painting the bulbous bow on my carrier. If I continue any further trying to fix/straighten the black waterline mark by masking, painting, masking, painting, etc., then I'm just going to screw things up even more. Don't judge things by the pictures only as I have bad photography skills. To get a real sense of how the bulbous bow looks, you'd have to be here.
Do I really want to go any further with painting this area? Not likely. Better to say it's done and just cut my losses. Painting the bulbous bow was a real PITA! This thing fought me every step of the way.     

That's looking good! 
That Ford kit is crazy expensive. It better build itself at that price.