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Q&As since 1989


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Coloring ship model coppering

Greetings! I am a maritime modeler, and I am looking for a method of coloring 010 copper that oxidized green one sees in copper after a while in the elements. Short of putting it on my roof for 20 years, is there a way of getting that green color without expensive equipment and in a relatively safe process?

Please find attached a photograph of the Pandora in it's early stages of completion. The model is of a 24 gun Frigate which sank off Australia in the late 1790s while searching for the Bounty after the mutiny. The model is constructed of oak and rose wood, with poplar upper decks and it will have ebony spars and topmasts. Most of the copper will be the coppering from the waterline down, however their are small copper parts that must be greened as well. The model also has carved bone figures for the crew, and I am carving bone figures for the detail around the gallery windows (which are cut glass so one can see details within the model, such as the captains great cabin).

All the best,
Cheers,

Larry Otway
Moonraker Shipways - NYC New York USA & Devises, Wiltshire England
2000

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I don't know how you are going to apply the coloring agent to copper once it is installed on your model, but see the book, "The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals".

  
Tom Pullizzi
Falls Township, Pennsylvania
2000

This is something I came across years ago in a model boat mag. In the days of ship building the mens head (washroom ) would house the ships letters as the ship was being built. Urine was the answer for colouring brass that certain green, and it went on saying that this colour only could be obtained with urine, no substitute! Just don't tell the family or if you dare, maybe make it a family project to speed up the process.. I does really work !

Phil Kirk
- Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
2003