Paint job on this plane is killing me...

Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Paint job on this plane is killing me...

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 10:07 PM

So I'm about to take airbrush thinner to the entire upper side of this damn airplane. This thing is killing me to paint, and I really need to just start over from scratch. Check out this picture.

http://www.lmaeronautics.com/gallery/products/combat_air/f22/f22_press/f22_03/f22pr030523_lr.jpg

http://www.lmaeronautics.com/gallery/products/combat_air/f22/f22_press/f22_01/01E01128_11.jpg

Mine looks nothing like this. I have the colors down pat. My problem is with the darker portions in the center of the wings and tails. My edges turn out to soft. When I use some type of masking, my edges turn out to hard. At this point there is enough paint on the damn thing you can't see most panel lines. Time to start over.

I am using a Badger 350, sure, not a fabulous brush but I have all the necessary tips for it. Fine needle, fine tip and fine air tip. I just can't seem to get the edges of the dark to light camo to look right. Plus, when I freehand it the lines don't turn out quite the right shape. I also tried the clay masking technique but my edges turned out to hard.

Is this just a matter of practice or am I doing something wrong?

When camoing like this should you apply light over dark or dark over light?

How would you paint (using a badger 350) the above pictured aircraft? (scale is 1/48)

thanks

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paulnchamp

Member since
January 2003
From: Warwick, RI

Posted by paulnchamp on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 10:18 PM

I've never been able to freehand camoflauge either. What are you using for masking material?
I've had decent luck with 3M masking tape.

Paul "A man's GOT to know his limitations."

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 10:37 PM

One question about plane camouflage...or any military camouflage with more than 1 color... The border where the different colors meets...is it supposed to blurred as in a gradual change or is there a clear boundary between colors? Never been able to figure this out...

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 10:45 PM

There was an article about this in FSM one time. Still use masks, but you need to raise them from the aircraft surface in order to get a soft edge. Roll pieces of masking tape about 1/4 inch square or so, and stick these underneath the mask. Now stick this down on the wing, or wherever, and you are ready to spray paint. Looking at the camou scheme you want, I'd work from dark color first just because it will be easier to make the mask shapes.

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Keyworth

Member since
January 2003
From: NE Georgia

Posted by Keyworth on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 10:53 PM

Elevating the mask is a great way to get a softer edge. Just keep the airbrush in the same attitude when painting or you'll get over(under?)spray on the unmasked areas. Good luck. Post your results when you're done. - Ed

"There's no problem that can't be solved with a suitable application of high explosives"

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, July 24, 2003 12:27 AM

Well I'm in the process of stripping all the paint off the top of this thing. This is just terrible. The masking I attempted was with clay. You know, the snake thing. Couldn't make it look right. So now I'm going to repaint the base color and cut out templates after scanning the instruction sheet and blowing it up to scale. Will just regular old paper work providing its elevated enough off the model with the tape?

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, July 24, 2003 5:52 AM

maybe you could try to not expect it to look like the exact camo on the plane, instead make your own pattern. when doing camo you should always make the higher surfaces a darker color and work your way down to a lighter color ( just like putting face paint on).
I think I'll try to find the TM ( training Maual ) for camo and post in here to help people out with camo paterns for modern US forces.

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erush

Member since
May 2003
From: USA, GA

Posted by erush on Thursday, July 24, 2003 6:45 AM

Jafar when you are free handing the camo you can minimize the edge by spraying toward the center of the camo spot or area. I spray at a little bit of an angle toward the inside of the area and work my way around doing an outline first. I then fill in the middle and have a pretty good soft edge that way. ( I just don't like to mask) That makes any over spray go into the area you're painting anyway. Also if you thin your paint a little more than normal you can get a finer spray and use less air pressure which helps.

Or you can do the raised mask that someone mentioned above. On that you'll want to spray perpendicular to the edges of your mask.

Eric

Hi, I'm Eric and I'm a Modelholic too. I think I have PE poisioning.

"Friendly fire...isn't"

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, July 24, 2003 7:02 AM

yes, plain paper will suffice for the mask ... also be sure to place those rolled pieces of masking tape a good 1/8 inch in from the edge of the mask to allow for overspray (or underspray in this case)

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wibhi2

Member since
March 2003
From: Brooklyn

Posted by wibhi2 on Thursday, July 24, 2003 8:49 AM

I also use just plain paper for the mask, but I use "blue tac" as the snake. I will also airbrush light coats of the dark pattern to stave off underspray and paper absorbtion. Softmasks are the way to go IMHO

When doing this, make sure that your airbrush is pretty much perpendicular to the surface.

3d modelling is an option a true mental excercise in frusrtation

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nsclcctl

Member since
May 2003
From: USA

Posted by nsclcctl on Thursday, July 24, 2003 9:40 AM

On this topic, I had a whale of a time with the ME109 I am building. The top camo somehow softly blends into the sides of the fuselage. Mine, I used masking tape, is a straight line. It looks hideous. BUT, I am learning. I am going to complete this one and move on. What I always say is, the guy on the line who painted the original plane was also learning. This is how he did it and moved on as well. I will get it right, just like they did in WWII. Make sense?

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, July 24, 2003 10:09 AM

I never mask soft camo patterns and I get good to excellent results. This may surprise you but I use an aztek. Set it between 10 and 15 psi and thin 50/50. Couldn't do it with a paschee VL though. The VL spattered no matter the pressure or thin ratio. Soon will try badger 100.

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, July 24, 2003 5:25 PM

Well, on real planes the fading line is only an inch or two thick, so scaled down, it would be quite thin. If you end up with a really 'tight' fade, it would probably in scale. It just doesn't look as cool since it's so small. And some of the agressor schemes are actually hard lines. I figure as long as it looks good to you, then you're good to go.

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klem

Member since
May 2003
From: Fall River, MA

Posted by klem on Thursday, July 24, 2003 7:35 PM

Good call jgeratic. Thats how I airbrushed my 48th scale A-10. Roll masking tape, put a paper mask on it quite close to the surface and spray perpendicular to the surface of the model. I got it to work using a black and white camo. job on my hog! Cool [8D]

"We the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible, for the ungrateful. We've been doing so much for so long with so little we are now capable of doing anything with nothing." Unknown

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 25, 2003 8:07 PM

I did a dessert camo paintjob with my airbrush on a tank b4 and what i would do is spray the lighter color first..like in the pics...the silver or the Flat light grey ...then take a piece of poster board or printer paper and draw the shapes you want. Then hold it over the area and spay it with your 2nd darker color the dark green lookin color or the darker medium or gunship grey. Using the paper or poster board as a stencil gives the paint some room to blend with other color by allowing some spots of paint to get under the board...instead of the uniform hard edge given by the maskin tape.

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72cuda

Member since
July 2003
From: USA

Posted by 72cuda on Saturday, July 26, 2003 2:07 PM

here's some thing to try, I have on my air compressor is a pressure regulator, I reduce the PSI to about 8PSI and shoot the DK Ghost Grey on the LT Ghost, and it'll give me a softer feather like on the big boy, also on that A/C the paint is not completely the same shade either, it's called stealth faded scheme so it'll cause the colors to blend with the back ground better, if you can't get the feather you want because you don't have a PSI regulator the try to shoot on your finest setting and back the brush away from the kit I think you'll be pleased with this technic, I used to do this before I went with the PSI reg Tongue [:P]

84 of 795 1/72 Aircraft Competed for Lackland's Airman Heritage Museum

Was a Hawg Jet Fixer, now I'm a FRED Fixer

'Cuda

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 26, 2003 2:32 PM

Yeah, I need to try real low psi. I was trying it at around 20-22 and wasn't getting the desired result. I'll try it down real low and see how it looks. This badger 350 ought to be able to give a pretty fine line with the fine tips and low psi. We'll see.

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72cuda

Member since
July 2003
From: USA

Posted by 72cuda on Saturday, July 26, 2003 2:39 PM

good luck, and remember to relax

84 of 795 1/72 Aircraft Competed for Lackland's Airman Heritage Museum

Was a Hawg Jet Fixer, now I'm a FRED Fixer

'Cuda

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markuz226

Member since
January 2003
From: Everett

Posted by markuz226 on Saturday, July 26, 2003 2:54 PM

Just take it one at a time. Don't rush things as rushing make u tend to care less. Wait a week or so to apply the next color. That's usually what I do to regain my enthusiasm and to calm my frustrations.

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, July 27, 2003 2:54 PM

I may be doing something wrong, but it seems when i use real low pressure, 10 or so, the brush spatters even worse. I seem to get the finest pattern at high psi. (35-40) Maybe its because this brush is an external mix. (badger 350)

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, July 28, 2003 5:55 AM

QUOTE: Originally posted by jgeratic

There was an article about this in FSM one time. Still use masks, but you need to raise them from the aircraft surface in order to get a soft edge. Roll pieces of masking tape about 1/4 inch square or so, and stick these underneath the mask. Now stick this down on the wing, or wherever, and you are ready to spray paint. Looking at the camou scheme you want, I'd work from dark color first just because it will be easier to make the mask shapes.

There is also an article in a book from Paul Boyer Building & Displaying Scale Model Aircraft, This shows good step for step illustrations on a Douglas A26 B/C INVADER. He uses raised masking with a 3 colour camouflage. Once again I reccomend this book to modellers of all skills.

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72cuda

Member since
July 2003
From: USA

Posted by 72cuda on Saturday, August 2, 2003 10:14 AM

that might be ture, I've used Badger 200's & 150's and they are internal mixing and had no problems, we might try to use the very fine setting to get your pattern down then go to a slightly wider spray to fill in the blanks, try this at your normal PSI, I recommend to try it first on a scrap model or some paper first then if it work try it on the kit
good luck

84 of 795 1/72 Aircraft Competed for Lackland's Airman Heritage Museum

Was a Hawg Jet Fixer, now I'm a FRED Fixer

'Cuda

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r13b20

Member since
April 2014

Posted by r13b20 on Saturday, August 2, 2003 6:21 PM

I spent 4 years in the ARMY. When we repainted our M109's and 548's we just laid out our pattern and sprayed. Don't let a picture fool you into frustration!! Try practicing on a box or other usless item.

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