Masking/Painting strategy

TB6088

Rusty,

Thanks for the clear description of your process.  Simple sounds good to me.  You've confirmed for me that painting the decks and fittings before assembly is a reasonable approach, and it seems to make sense to assemble and paint all the superstructure subassemblies (island structures, turrets, etc.) separately and then attach them to the previously painted deck.  My experience with the fit of Tamiya kits makes me think gaps will be minimal, and if I use your approach--- not painting the superstructure elements and careful gluing--- I would expect the result would be cleaner demarcation lines between horizontal and vertical surfaces.  Considering that you avoid a large portion of the masking that Mike Ashey's approach would require--- it sounds like an approach worth trying.  

Tom

 

Tom- Glad to help. BTW, after painting the decks, I wound up painting all the exposed fittings as the bare plastic looked way out of place with all the darker superstructures.

BondoMan- I am right at the point I have to decide about paint schemes, weathering, metal parts, etc. I've been doing a lot of research! I started looking for rails when I noticed the deck already had holes for them, and still am not sure what I will do.

Ed- Thanks for the flag website. I've been thinking of making my own by printing out some website signal flags using a laserjet, and gluing them onto either wavey foil or shaped plasticard squares.

So many options; so few skills!

Rusty

 

       

 

Rusty,

Thanks for the clear description of your process.  Simple sounds good to me.  You've confirmed for me that painting the decks and fittings before assembly is a reasonable approach, and it seems to make sense to assemble and paint all the superstructure subassemblies (island structures, turrets, etc.) separately and then attach them to the previously painted deck.  My experience with the fit of Tamiya kits makes me think gaps will be minimal, and if I use your approach--- not painting the superstructure elements and careful gluing--- I would expect the result would be cleaner demarcation lines between horizontal and vertical surfaces.  Considering that you avoid a large portion of the masking that Mike Ashey's approach would require--- it sounds like an approach worth trying.  

Tom

I use hand paint..

Paint the deck first and super structure surface first. Then I tackle the hull and side super structure.

Glue Mark

The kit has no signal flags or ship decals at all, so I have been surfing the after market sites for ideas. If anyone knows some good techniques and materials for flags and decals, I'd appreciate it.

 

Hawk Graphics offers 1:350 scale signal flags in small/medium/large sizes

http://www.hawk-graphics.com/pages/decals.html

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Iron Shipwright offers WWII unshaded hull number decals

http://ironshipwrights.com/accessories.html

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-co-mk/camouflg/usn-wwii/3--bb3.htm

Rusty, take it a step further again you can get into a serious amount of fun. BB55 is a beautiful ship. I'd love to see your model.

Hello Everyone!

I built the 350th Tamiya Missouri, Yamato, and Prince George by hand painting the decks and fittings before assembly, and leaving the superstructures unpainted because I liked the color. I did detail the rafts, guns, directors, spotlights etc and got a very good overall effect. The excellent fit of the entire Tamiya warship line resulted in very few, if any, noticable seams on the island structures. You just have to be carefull not to leave any glue marks, haha. I'm not a very sophisticated builder, so I try to keep it simple.

I am now in the middle of the 350th Trumpeter North Carolina, and had to give this issue some thought because the plastic was molded in what I considered too light a color. What I arrived at was to build and paint each level of the superstructures separatly, then assemble. This allowed adequate access to more areas that needed coverage. I painted the turrets and island side panels separatly as well. For the decks, before attaching anything, I decided to mask the steel plated areas, the gun placement protectors, most other metal areas, and any major areas that would be getting glue applied. I now plan to use dark tan spray enamel to paint the wooden portion of the decks, and either hand paint the masked off areas later, or leave them bare.

The kit has no signal flags or ship decals at all, so I have been surfing the after market sites for ideas. If anyone knows some good techniques and materials for flags and decals, I'd appreciate it.

Rusty

Go back and check Ashey again.    He also demonstrates the technique where he paints the deck first.  Then he masks the deck leaving the bulkheads and deck fittings open.  He uses hundreds of little masking tape snippets to accomplish the job.   It is very labor intensive.  He then sprays the hull, bulkheads, and fittings.

Here is also a quick/no mask painting tip:  Paint the deck first.   When painting the hull & superstructure hold the model tipped away and spray from the below the deck edge line.   The deck edge can mask the deck leaving as much as much as 3/4 the height of the bulkhead accessible for painting.  Touch up the bottom of the bulkhead & fittings with a hand brush.

Most such strategies don't include the ability to "add" the vertical surfaces, as you noted. When that's possible, painting it all before assembly is the way to go. But traditionally, before Trumpeter, decks and bulkheads were usually one piece. Try both ways. One consideration is that often there's a lot of fittings cast with the deck, like capstans, and it's easier to paint those first and then mask them and paint the deck. And don't discount hand painting. A very useful skill.