any tips on fine micro-painting?

It's kind of tricky, but I've been amazed how small a spot I can paint with my clumsy hands and a round toothpick The tricky part is that you can't expect the paint to flow as it would from a small brush; if you put enough paint on it to make it flow, it will glop off the toothpick in a bead and go everywhere. You have to keep it relatively dry and depend on direct transfer of paint from the point or sides to the spot you want it on. The point or sides MUST touch the spot you're painting, if you've got too much paint for that you've got too much paint on the toothpck, period.

The flat toothpicks with the squared small ends are good too, although obviously they won't be as precise. They are god for stuff like cockpit gauge faces, and I used one recently to paint the green on the MFD screns in 1/72 Hornet cockpit. 

BTW, I can't take credit for this tip, it was in FSM a few months ago, and the reader who sent it in says he paints the safety stripes on ejection seats with toothpicks. So, unless he's modelling in 1/32 or larger, it must be possible to put on very small amounts of paint very precisely. 

I have  used a .5mm mechanical pencil, dipped in paint, to put small dots with a fair amount of control.  Any pencil will do, even the cheap disposable kinds.

Kurt

Hello Jcfay!

I've stuggled for YEARS to paint those stupid darned switches and buttons and ejection handle strips but now I no longer have any problems.  "How?" you ask?  I've discovered the wonderful world of Sharpie markers!  I've always used them for my design work but I never thought to use them on my models until I read about it on this forum.  Now I use the fine point Sharpies in red, yellow and black to pick out all the fine details in my cockpits and other such small spaces.  One word of warning though.  I found out that hard way that if you use the Sharpie markers and then apply a Testors flat coat over everything, the flat coat will disolve away the Sharpie ink.  If at all possible, do your clear coats first before using the Sharpie.

Hope this helps!  It sure did for me!   :)

Eric

jcfay wrote:

Thanks for all of the advice, folks.  I was out shopping and stopped at JoAnn fabrics (or whatever it's called) and found they had a pretty good and cheap selection of super small brushes.  I picked up a couple sets with 5/0 and 10/0 brushes for cheap, and then also picked up an 18/0 and 20/0 brush.  These make the job a whole lot easier in certain situations.  Of course, you have to overcome the humiliation of going into Joann fabrics, which I am still not proud of

Meh, I had to get over the humiliation of going to fabric store years ago.  1 of my many hobbies is mideveil recreation and I sew my own costumes.  Its very expensive to purchase these garments made for you and they are rather plain.  Also I seem to change eras and countries every few years  so to be able to do this I must humilate myself by purchasing fabric.  So far I have made several peasent or work clothes garments that are rather simple and have the "look of mideveil clothing".  I then switched to about 1480 german puff and slash which is always extremely fashionable.  Currently Im do a japanese persona and even made a suit of suspension laced armor out of leather it is by far 1 of my greatest achievements and is displayed in our dinning room. 1 of these days Im going clean up another suit of armor I have and display it also in the dinning room.  But now that Im getting older and fatter I feel the urge to once again to make the switch, Im leaning more towards the style of Henry VIII. 

I use "bamboo" slivers and they work perfectly for any size of model or detail.
Cut a "barbeque" bamboo stick in half, then half that. Now very carefully with a sharp
No.11 Exacto knife cut the "Sliver" you need for the job, the size you need. Its like using a tiny pen.

seaphoto wrote:

I have  used a .5mm mechanical pencil, dipped in paint, to put small dots with a fair amount of control.  Any pencil will do, even the cheap disposable kinds. Kurt

Thats what I do too, you can simply breaker off the lead when your done and its a cheap tool.