Making masks/stencils

Interesting conumdrum!

Of course the top colour of any paint (or decal) is dependant on what's underneath.

When you lay the decals down on the darker colour, it will darken the decal colour, which is why you have circular white decals to go under the roundels on the sheet above.

You may get some milage by applying the fuselage decal over your painted stripe, or remasking it, & overpainting with a lighter shade of sky?

The way I would approach this, is above, or...

PHOTOCOPY the decal sheet, tape it to your desk, lightly apply FRISK film, Semi-transparent & don't burnish the film, & cut your stencil.

Apply your stencil & then burnish the edges. Some people will spray a light gloss coat to seal the edges, any leakage being clear gloss & easier to clean up, then spray white, then Sky. lightly run a sharp scalpel round the edges to prevent peeling or ragged edges.

Okay you have taken the first step to freeing yourself from decals, at least the larger ones. Get one of the machines that you can cut stencils with and you will be in happy land. I use a Cricut machine and I use the least expensive one they were selling at the time I bought it, so you don't need an expensive all the bells and whistles type cutter. There are other manchines too but I can't recall the names. Good luck cutting around those decals.

Jon_a_its  

I'll look into trying frisket film. I've never used it or even heard of it until I saw it mentioned on the forum. I mentioned the Tamiya mask because I've been happy with their tape and have gotten clean edges, without having to go around the mask with a blade after painting. I try to do light coats and build up though. So that probably helps.

Tickmagnet

The Cricut was something else I had never heard of until I joined the forum this past April. What's funny is a few weeks ago my wife mentioned getting a Cricut for making t-shirts. Might have to talk her into getting one so I can use it also haha. I checked out their site a little and I'm assuming I could scan the decals on my printer, then use the scan to cut out masks using the Cricut?

Tojo72

That's funny! I see some of the work other members do on the forum and I think the same thing.

I think I'm going to try applying the decal to the Tamiya mask and see what happens for now. If it works. Great. If not. I can always repaint and try something else. This is the first kit I've built in about two decades, and our five year old already claimed it as his lol. He said he wants me to hang it from the ceiling in his room. So it's not like it's going to be seen by anyone up close...

I'll post how I make out with the method I'm going to try.

Yes if you have a decent scanner you can do that. It's a learning curve because the machine is designed for girly hobbies and they provide nothing that caters to modellers. Instruction is all on line but I've managed to figure it out enough for my needs. They make a stencil vynil that I use to cut masks with or you can also use frisket film. My wife was the one that told me about the cricut machine after she tired of me cussing decals and I was looking for a way to paint the markings. Happiness is a wife that enjoys me enjoying my hobby.

A few more questions about the Cricut if you don't mind answering them. When I was on their site earlier today I saw that you can create your own designs. So I'm assuming one would be able to design roundels and stars and bars, among other things? Are measurements in inch and metric? I'm also assuming you can denote where you want the cut to take place on whatever medium you're using, so material won't be wasted? I'm also assuming designs/files be saved and shared?

A vector based drawing software would be the go, much better end results than using a scan or Photo editor.

Having used Illustrator (& Photoshop) for decades , which is what I personaly would use. Other free options are avaliable.

I've been waying up my options on a cutter for sometime, and keep looking at the Roland, but it's a very expensive unit.

I received my Tamiya mask earlier this week, applied the decal to part of it, and let it sit overnight. I then cut it out with a straight edge and freehanded the curves. Plucked out the cut letters and placed a piece of tape over the center of the "A" to hold it in place while applying the mask. Then painted the letters. It turned out ok. Not perfect. But not that bad. A couple things I will do different on the other side. First being the placement of the decal on the mask. I had it too close to the edges. So while using the staight edge, it didn't want to stay flush to the mask. I may also try a different X-acto blade. I used a new #11, but it would occasionally wander. I noticed a very slight twist at tip of the blade, which may have been the cause. I may try a #16 blade though. I also had slight lift of the paint near an edge. I didn't remove the mask as quick as I usually like to. So that might have contributed to the lift.

I was planning on trying to make masks for the roundels and have an Olfa circle cutter to use. But I have MRP paint for the roundel markings and this Spit has Vallejo on it. I guess I'll try out the same Vallejo on some spoons and then put the MRP lacquer over it and see what happens.

I'm definitely going to get some form of electronic cutter to make stencils though. I just like the way the paint looks.

Here are some pics.

I would say that’s a win.  I’m slowly breaking up with decals too.  I just started using MRP.  They are terrific.

Thanks. But I don't think you zoomed into the last pic though lol. That's good to hear about MRP. I decided to try MRP from what I've read in a few builds on the forum. I need to get my old booth out or make a new one before I use them though, because of the fumes. I do like Vallejo though and have had good luck with it so far. Even their primer which I've read mixed things about on the forum.