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Paint Swirl on nose cone???

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  • Member since
    November 2005
Paint Swirl on nose cone???
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 31, 2003 4:37 AM
Ok I have been looking at a lot of FW190 pics and on almost all of the ones I have seen...there has been a white stripe painted in a "swirl" pattern on the nosecone in front of the prop.Few questions...

1) Has anyone done this? What is your technique? Ive never tried it.

2) Were these designs always white?

Thanks in advance for any help....
Chris
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 31, 2003 6:03 AM
The majority of the "spinner swirls" are supplied as decals. With a very gloss surface, gentle positioning, plenty of decal solvent, and the occasional snip, they conform to the compound curve. The decals need to be thick enough to be opaque, yet thin enough to follow the curve.
I have never tried to mask them, but others have done it successfully.
I can't recall seeing anything other than white, but they may exist.
Here's a 109K-4 with an Aeromaster decal on the nose.
  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Pominville, NY
Posted by BlackWolf3945 on Friday, October 31, 2003 6:21 AM
The spiraleschnauze (some folks call it the wirbelschnauze or some such) was, more often than not, black and white. There were other colors used, blue and white, black and yellow or red...

I've only done one model with a spiral spinner (actually two spinners) and it's the Do 335 below.

I painted the spinner white then applied a mask made of a thin strip of masking tape cut so that the width decreased to a point. I applied the thinner end to the tip of the spinner and wound it around until I got the desired pattern and coverage. Then I sprayed the spinner black and removed the mask.



For the front spinner (not shown here) I did the same only reversed the colors for the helluvit. I figured that since I was putting the bird in theoretical markings (the Do 335 never made it to an operational fighter unit) and since the spiral appeared in many variations to begin with, I'd have a bit of fun with it.

There's a number of masks available that you can buy, but why spend the money on something that you can do yourself quite easily? Alotta decal sheets also provide the spiral as a decal, but I prefer the painted on look.

Someday I'd like to try hand-painting one of these as many of the originals were hand-painted as illustrated by the shot below:



I, too, would like to hear others' techniques for applying the spiraleschnauze.


Fade to Black...
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 31, 2003 6:26 AM
Thanks for the help guys...I think I will try the mask technique for now....though I too would also like to hand paint one!
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 31, 2003 9:18 AM
This might sound crazy but here goes:
Why not attach it to an electric drill (preferably one with adjustable speed) so it will rotate and just paint it on? Maybe it works...
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 31, 2003 12:32 PM
I think a drill would spin too fast even at the slowest speed, but if you were to hand turn the drill chuck you might have some success.
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 31, 2003 12:52 PM
I tried my mini dremel on slow Dead [xx(] what a disaster! I used the decal. Bob
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: Halfway back to where I started
Posted by ckfredrickson on Friday, October 31, 2003 1:26 PM
My one and only attempt at the swirl was hand painted several years ago, and I wasn't pleased with the results... Controlling the amount of paint on the brush/pen and finding a way to steadily turn the hub at a controlled rate are the most important parts; course when you're young you don't foresee those issues.

Masking with a thin strip of masking tape is probably the best bet... you may also want to consider pinstriping from an auto supply store or drafting tape as an option for the mask if you want to guarantee parallel sides for the stripe.
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 31, 2003 5:09 PM
Or you could try drawing it on with a pencil at first and follow that pattern with your brush
  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Pominville, NY
Posted by BlackWolf3945 on Friday, October 31, 2003 5:24 PM
That's how I'd do it if I were to hand-paint one, pencil it in first. That'd be an adventure in itself...


Fade to Black...
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Central USA
Posted by qmiester on Friday, October 31, 2003 7:59 PM
This worked for me - A while back I bought some aftermarket decals for the FW-190 which had several different spirals on it - rather than use them, I traced their outline on tracing paper, transfered that to tape. After painting the spinner the color of the spiral, I installed the tape, then painted the spinner in black (or dark green 71). When dry i remove the tape and do any touch up that may be needed. Any way it works for me
Quincy
  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: u.s.a.
Posted by inpw1 on Friday, October 31, 2003 8:02 PM
i did a swirl on an fw-190 hub several years ago by hand and found that by going slow, and taking your time it turns out rather nice looking, and looks more like the real hand painted ones that wouldnt be "decal" perfect to begin with....my thought anyways

jim
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 31, 2003 8:52 PM
Thanks for all the help...I'll let you know how it turned out
  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: Joisey
Posted by John P on Saturday, November 1, 2003 10:38 AM
Blackwolf brings up an interesting point - here we are trying our best to get sharp lines and solid, unstreaked paint jobs, using decals for invasion stripes and German spinners, but the guys who painted the full size planes DIDN'T!

I've seen photos of invasion stripes that were whacked on with a 4" house-painting brush! Awful! And here we are misrepresenting them as being perfect :D.
-------------------------------
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, November 1, 2003 7:08 PM
Ive noticed also that most of the nose cone paintings were a lil "sloppy" also....So I think Ill give the handbrushing painting a try
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, November 1, 2003 7:51 PM
My one and only experience with a spinner spiral was with a 1/72 Pro Modeler Bf-109G. The end of the decal, starting at the base of the spinner had a nick which was to be positioned around one of the prop blades at the the base of the spinner. After removing the decal from the backing paper, I draped the decal loosely around the spinner and directed my total attention to aligning the nick with the prop blade. When I was happy with that fit, I started to work on the "tip end" of the decal only to find the decal had on its own conformed to the spinner. Not forcing the fit obviously did the trick. wouldn't it be nice if the manufacturers would market "practice sets" i.e a bunch of spinners packaged with a bunch of decals or a package of a bunch of canopies?
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, November 2, 2003 8:23 PM
A-ha, decals. I've long wondered how those swirls looked so perfect on other peoples' planes. I did one by hand many years ago on a 1/32 scale FW-190D - the swirl came out sloppy, but I still thought it looked cool.
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