masking aircraft for painting camoflage

buff, just finished a Spit in desert colors, I use silly putty to mask camo patterns. It can be stretched and formed into any shape, won't lift your primary color and leaves no residue behind. Very easy to conform to complex curves like going from wing to fuselage, and up and over fuselage. Also, reusable when you are done. LOL
Charles

buff, i read an article not long ago on naplak i think. they took the models instruction sheets and blew them up on a copier. then, they took a piece of glass about the size of a sheet of paper 8 x 11 or so, and covered the glass with masking tape. then, they placed the scaled up instructions on the tape and began cutting the shapes out with a sharp xacto. when completed, peel the tape off the glass and place on the aircraft. repeat untile all desired areas are covered. silly putty works well too. in my experience, its sorta difficult to get the putty into the shape you want it. i free hand my cammo schemes but i know british aircraft had that hard line as most were brush painted (so ive heard).

I use Blutak instead of silly putty, and have found that you can hard or soft edged camo with it, depenfing upon direction of spray.

If you spray from behind the silly putty or Blutak, you get a soft edge as the spray pattern is disrupted by the masking, before it hits plastic.

If you spray toward the silly putty, etc, so that spray is not disrupted, then you get a nice hard line.

I'm not sure about hard lines on RAF aircraft, as brush painting takes far longer, and adds greater weight than spraying. Best bet find a photo.

Hope this helps.

Karl

I tried the silly putty, and it didn't work as well as i wanted. i found it messy and it stuck to everything. How exactly did you use it? thanks for the help

Haven't used Sillyputty, but Blutak sounds like it should be firmer, and therefore easier to work with.

The Blutak can stick, but is easily removed by rubbing off with another peice.

I just roll it into sausages and gently press it onto the surface being masked.

The areas in between I mask with 1 inch masking tape.

Karl

Just FYI, British aircraft actually used rubber mats to paint their camo schemes. That's why they had the hard lines and why the paint jobs were all exactly the same pattern. The rubber mats actually had part numbers and there were two schemes - one opposite hand of the other. Very British, eh??
Rich

buff, i just found the article i read. maybe this will help: http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/tnt1/001-100/TNT004_camo/tnt004.htm

good luck and hope this helps. later.

Thanks for the tips. Blutak would probable be better because it isn't as gooey. However, I don't think I can get it here. The very little we have in the house comes was bought the last time we were in the U.K visiting my in-laws. Maybe if I ask nicely enough, they'll send me some.

Buff, if your reli's are feeling nice, let me know and I'll send you a couple of packs.

Karl

Be careful with the rubber cement tip - if I remember correctly, it doesn't do anything to raw plastic, but it will affect painted plastic...

FSM ran a How-To Article on "Easy Camouflage masking" a while back. Do a search in the All Subjects link to find the issue; Paul Boyer demonstrated how to use maks made from file folder stock to create the soft-mask technique. Also if you have a double action airbrush, you may want to try practicing free-handing the pattern. It's easy wants you get the hang of it. What I do is spray the lightest color first and let dry. Next I thin my enamels 1:1 using MM thinner with a few drops of Winsor & Newton oil paint medium(prevents tip clogs and improves paint flow). I draw the color patterns with a pencil and label each section "G" for gray and "T" for tan etc.. Using my Iwata Eclipse HP-CS (.35mm tip) held close to the models surface I slightly pull back on the trigger to release the smallest dot possible to draw the demarcation out-line. To complete I go back and fill in the sections with color. Most airbrushes with a fine tip can facilitate the fine lines, just a matter of some practice until you feel comfortable.