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A Method for Painting Invasion Stripes

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  • Member since
    September 2012
A Method for Painting Invasion Stripes
Posted by namrednef on Sunday, January 13, 2008 1:06 PM

 I've been in contact with a great guy here....JimF, who has sold me some kits I was looking for.

Recently, he told me of a method he developed for painting invasion stripes that seems to take some of the hassle out of the process.

 Yes, some modelers here may use the same system, or have other, even easier methods. But as invasion stripes have stymied me in the past due to colors bleeding under tape etc. I thought that sharing JimF's ideas might help some others here.....and give a chance to hear other ideas. 

 I'll just try to lay it out with as few pronouns as possible.

 Before attaching wings to fuselage(kit permitting), with no paint other than primer, and having a white primer base for the stripe area:

 Paint the entire stripe area white....overspraying the area to each side, which will form the outer borders of the stripes when final paint scheme is applied.

 Carefully mask off the stripes which are to remain white then, (and here's the cool part), paint the whole area agin in white. This will seal the edges of your taping and prevent bleeding when you shoot the black.

 JimF likes the Tamiya masking tape as many others do here.

 Be sure to let your coats of paint cure properly.....then without removing any masking.....shoot the black stripes over your sealing coat of white.

 Now you can do your main assembly and paint your final colors (cover your black stripes!)

 Sounds like an absurdly simple way to avoid color bleed  

 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: South Central Wisconsin
Posted by Daywalker on Sunday, January 13, 2008 2:16 PM
 namrednef wrote:

Carefully mask off the stripes which are to remain white then, (and here's the cool part), paint the whole area agin in white. This will seal the edges of your taping and prevent bleeding when you shoot the black.

...Sounds like an absurdly simple way to avoid color bleed  

 

Wow, very good idea!  Thanks Jim via Nam! Smile,Wink, & Grin [swg]

Frank 

 

  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: A Spartan in the Wolverine State
Posted by rjkplasticmod on Sunday, January 13, 2008 3:18 PM

Souds good.  Only potential problem is paint build up from the white sealer coat, which might leave a bit of a ridge.  Probably wouldn't be noticeable unless you apply decals over that area.

Regards,  Rick

RICK At My Age, I've Seen It All, Done It All, But I Don't Remember It All...
  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: Niagara Falls NY
Posted by Butz on Sunday, January 13, 2008 4:05 PM

 That sounds very interesting but I agree w/ Rick with the build up of paint..

 For me, this is how I like to apply the "D Day" bands. This has become a norm for me but I like to air brush the a/c w/ flat black as a base coat.

 Once I know the scheme,I then measure the width of the stripes then mask off the ones that are going to be black w/ non pourse surgical tape.

  After that I go back over the section(s) with white. Yes black is a no no as a primer but for me I like it casue it helps bring out the natural shadows and helps add a worn look to the paint.

  Anywho here is a build that I applied my method to!! For some reason the white was being weird and actually covered the black as if it was not there..Laughs Go figure..!!

Flaps up,

Mike

Rangers Lead The Way 

 

  If you would listen to everybody about the inaccuracies, most of the kits on your shelf would not have been built Too Close For Guns, Switching To Finger

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by namrednef on Sunday, January 13, 2008 4:22 PM

Yep Mike.....!

Part of the reason I asked JimF about making this post.....we can all learn things! Whatever works and makes you comfortable, I say.

I practiced Jim's method on scrap and got virtually no buildup on the tape edge. I think this  is due to the white 'primer' coat.....so you need not shoot too heavy on the sealing coat.

I should add that JimF warned about stripes showing through some decaling.....a point I never was able to get toDead [xx(]

  • Member since
    August 2007
  • From: Dallas/Denton, Texas
Posted by semibold on Monday, January 14, 2008 9:20 AM
wouldnt be cool if someone started producing scaled-width masking tape for invasion stripes?
  • Member since
    February 2007
  • From: Bournemouth UK
Posted by Luftwoller on Monday, January 14, 2008 10:39 AM

Its posts like this that really help us all. Theres always tips and tricks that we can all pick up.

Thx for posting.

...Guy

..'Your an embarrassment to the human genus, makes me ashamed to call myself Homo'.
  • Member since
    January 2007
Posted by Gigatron on Monday, January 14, 2008 12:16 PM

 semibold wrote:
wouldnt be cool if someone started producing scaled-width masking tape for invasion stripes?

For 1/48, Tamiya's 1/2" masking tape is near perfect - and I mean within fractions of a millimeter perfect. 

When doing the stripes on my Jug, I constantly compared pictures of invasion stripes from where they started to where they ended on mine and they were almost dead on.  It would have scaled up to be like 1"-2" wider than the actual stuff.

What I did, was over the the first coat of NMF, spray down a base of white.  Then used the masking tape to mask the first white stripe.  Then used a small scrap piece to demark the spacing for the black.  Then laid down the mask for the next white.  And continued that until I had masked all the white.  Then I burnished the edges and lightly painted over the tape edges with some future.  Then I sprayed my black.  After that was done, I wrapped the parts in newspaper and just taped the edges down on the tape  had used to mask the outer white stripes.  Then I painted the plane as normal and was able to remove all my masking.

The trick to even lines is all in the first piece of tape.  Make sure that is straight and all the others will follow.  Then use a long piece of tape to wrap around whatever you're painting (wing, fuselage, etc.)  If the tape lands back even on itself (with no kinks or folds), you're straight and good to go.

-Fred

 

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by namrednef on Monday, January 14, 2008 6:24 PM

Nice post, Man!

Nice Jug too! 

  • Member since
    January 2007
  • From: Glue and paint smeared bench, in La La Land
Posted by dahut on Monday, January 14, 2008 7:29 PM
Remember, I-stripes were often a rush job and so werent neat and tidy. This was especially so on Spits, but on others as well. Check your foto refs, first.
Cheers, David
  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: The Great State of Wyoming
Posted by wyoroy on Monday, January 14, 2008 7:30 PM

If I may go a bit off topic, when doing the band for a Spitfire could I use future to seal the tape while painting the normal camouflage?    

Roy (Capt. Wyoroy FAAGB/USNFAWGB)

John 3:16

  • Member since
    January 2007
Posted by Gigatron on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 7:35 AM

Thanks, Nam Big Smile [:D].  This jug put up a bit of fight with the AM ammo bays.  Ended up having to order a whole new wing from Dragon.

Dahut, yeah they were rush jobs, but they weren't so incredibly sloppy that they'd be overly noticeable at scale.  Watch the second episode of Band of Brothers when they're loading up on the C-47s.  There's some good shots of the slop-job paint.  The guys who did the resto work did a really good job on that.  When scaled down, the sloppiness would become almost unnoticeable.

Roy, just go lightly with the future around the edges of the tape.  Keep it light and you should be fine.  Too heavy and you risk having noticeable edges.

-Fred

 

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