HMS Hood Wood Decking

EdGrune,

Thanks again.  Sounds like painting the smaller deck surfaces first is standard practice.  Would you normally paint the deck color on the individual parts prior to assembly of a component (like bridge or deckhouse) and then touch up? --- Or would you fully assemble each component, or the whole ship, and then spray the deck surfaces, since you're going to mask all the deck surfaces anyway before painting bulkheads and fittings?  I'm inclined to do the latter since I've never had much luck with pre-painting parts and then being able to assemble them cleanly enough not to require finishing and re-painting.  It would seem that whatever mask is used for the decks it would have to be on for a long time, and my worry would be damaging or pulling up my deck paint when the time came--- especially after a process like Dick described for his HMS Hood teak deck!  Is there a secret to protecting the painted deck surfaces during this process?

TomB 

I have seen something similar done on aircraft models, when painting hard-edged camouflage patterns. One of the guys in the club masks the perimeter of the camouflage area with 1/32 Chartpack tape, then fill in the field with wider tape and Humbrol liquid mask. The Chartpak allows him to get the crisp edge and the Humbrol fills the area more quickly. I've not tried it, but it could work. You will still need to cut lots of little snips of tape to go up against the bulkheads, fittings, etc. All in all it may be faster

Ed Grune,

Thanks.  That kind of answered a question I posted about a week from now about painting decks (should have dug a little deeper before posting my question, I guess).  I was pretty sure it was going to involve placing a whole bunch of tiny bits of tape to mask the smaller painted deck areas, and you just confirmed that as the recommended technique.  Is there really an alternative?  What about applying a thick coat of liquid mask by brush or (?) eye dropper?--- ever been tried? 

TomB

Right. I'm planning on putting down a light coat of Testors Model Master clear flat once I get all the deck painted. Then I'll experiment with a variety of masking agents, Press n'Seal, Para Film, etc., to cover the teak in order to airbrush the gray. If it appears that any area of this masking cannot be burnished down snug enough, I'll give it a shot of clear flat.

Dick McC

If you burnish the tape down well and spray with a lower pressure and away from the tape edges it minimizes the occurance of paint seeping under the taped edges.  

The technique of painting the deck first, then applying hundreds of tape snippets around the deck fittings is a common one and is recommended by Mike Ashey in his book 'The Basics of Ship Modeling - an illustrated guide' published by our hosts here.

Are you intending to spray any sort of clear coat on the teak before masking for the grey? If so; when it is all masked it might be worth spraying some around the edges where the teak meets the grey areas. I think this should stop any grey seeping under whatever masking system you use.

I have never tried this myself but I'm sure I read this tip somewhere.