Painting Langton ships

So, one of the on-going projects (and procrastinations) is building and painting Langton models for fighting the Battle of Copenhagen.  Currently working through the British ships.  The paint scheme seems simple, black sides with a yellow gunstipe and the gun ports painted black.  This is also known as the Nelson Checker.

Now the gun ports on these models are approximately 1mm square.  This requires brush control.  Brush control.  The ability to put the paint only on the model where it belongs.  This is a long standing issue for me and I can usually work through it.  Not this time.  To get these done I have to build up the gun ports by painting the gun stripe yellow, painting the gun port black (which seem to end up round or oval).  Then I go back and cut in with the yellow to make the gun ports square and the same size.  The only issue is that the yellow does not cover over black in one coat.  I am having to go over the black 3 or more times to get good coverage.  Which leads to 3 times to chance to screw up the other work.  I decided to try GW's foundation paints and use the Darksun color (A dark mustard color) to cover the black and the hopefully give one coat coverage for the yellow.  The first sample work turned out usable. So I dove in and used the foundation paint to cut in the gun ports on 3 2-deckers.  Lots of little black squares.  I sat down to go over the foundation paint with the yellow and hopefully finish up the gun stripes in one sitting.  This was not to be.  The foundation color shows through just as much as the black.  What???  I checked the yellow paint bottle, gave it a vigorous shake and tried again.  Still really poor coverage.  I worked through rest of one side of the first ship.  No change. Poor coverage.  I am now looking at 3 or 4 more coats of yellow.  Grumble, grumble, grumble.  I am not sure what caused the first sample to work out.  I went back and tried this again on the sample figures (Swiss pike with parti-color yellow and black pants.)  Not able to duplicate the first success.  

I will be looking into some different brands of yellow.  I am currently using Reaper Master Painter Series.  I am not sure what caused the sample to work out.  And I tried this on the sample figures (Swiss pike with parti-color yellow and black pants.)  Not able to duplicate the first success.

The local shop carries P3, GW paints, and some Vallejo paints.  I may even try some "craft" paints from Michael's or Joann's.  This issue is the main slow down in getting these ships painted.  Who wants to do a main detail on the figure 3-6 times?  I know I do not.  So, 3 sessions of painting that only leads right back to the place where I started, only with 3 more coats of paint on the ships (and the ships look worse...).

Well that is painting this weekend.