Airbrushing camouflage...to mask or not to mask?

For camouflage I use a technique called "loose masking". This technique involves photocopying the pattern to the scale of the model, cutting out the individual color pattern and loosely attaching it to the surface of the model with pieces of tape rolled onto themselves or contact cement. This leaves the mask about 1mm off the surface. Then I airbrush the paint at 90 degrees to the mask. This leaves a sharp but not hard edge to the pattern. Perfect for 1/72 scale air craft. Adjust the height of the mask for other scales.

Depends on how confident I am feeling or how complicated the camo scheme and how much time I want to spend doing soft masks like bstrump above. I just finished 3 harriers free hand - enjoyable experience it was.

BStrump's idea works fine. I did a P-40 that way earlier in the year and it worked out very well. My F-105 was done freehand, and the F-4 I'm doing now will be done freehand as well. The soft masking method gives a slightly tighter demarcation than freehand spraying, but it does take more work.

Try this ... take anything odd shaped, a Gladware box, a 20liter soft drink bottle, anything that is not a flat surface and has some direction changes. Lay out a pattern on it, just like you would your model, and freehand it. If you've never done it before it isn't as easy as it sounds. I have a lot of admiration for the guys who can do it well.

If you have to go back and forth between colors to get a tight demarcation between colors, there is nothing wrong with that.

It depends on what kind of camo it is as to whether I mask or not. Some of the sharp, angular Luftwaffee camo is easy to like this... I did a O10A Bronco like this and it took FOREVER and a LOT of paper! But on my Ju88 it was a snap, especially because the particular scheme I was using had VERY sharp lines to it and I had the mask almost on the surface of the model...

I saw in another post that someone else (forgot who it is but would love to give him credit for it) uses that blue Fun-tak stuff for sticking notes to the wall... he rolls it into cylinders if I remember right, lays it out on the model, then sticks the mask to that...

QUOTE: Originally posted by tho9900 It depends on what kind of camo it is as to whether I mask or not. Some of the sharp, angular Luftwaffee camo is easy to like this... I did a O10A Bronco like this and it took FOREVER and a LOT of paper! But on my Ju88 it was a snap, especially because the particular scheme I was using had VERY sharp lines to it and I had the mask almost on the surface of the model... I saw in another post that someone else (forgot who it is but would love to give him credit for it) uses that blue Fun-tak stuff for sticking notes to the wall... he rolls it into cylinders if I remember right, lays it out on the model, then sticks the mask to that...

That would be slaty.
You have to figure out what nation and time period the camo was painted in. On say germa WW2 planes like the 109 it will have hard edged splinter camo on the upper wings and elevators, but the fuselage will have a splotched soft edged camo. I would research my plane or vehicle first then take a look a look at time period and theatre. Then go from there.

QUOTE: Originally posted by woodbeck3 QUOTE: Originally posted by tho9900 It depends on what kind of camo it is as to whether I mask or not. Some of the sharp, angular Luftwaffee camo is easy to like this... I did a O10A Bronco like this and it took FOREVER and a LOT of paper! But on my Ju88 it was a snap, especially because the particular scheme I was using had VERY sharp lines to it and I had the mask almost on the surface of the model... I saw in another post that someone else (forgot who it is but would love to give him credit for it) uses that blue Fun-tak stuff for sticking notes to the wall... he rolls it into cylinders if I remember right, lays it out on the model, then sticks the mask to that... That would be slaty. You have to figure out what nation and time period the camo was painted in. On say germa WW2 planes like the 109 it will have hard edged splinter camo on the upper wings and elevators, but the fuselage will have a splotched soft edged camo. I would research my plane or vehicle first then take a look a look at time period and theatre. Then go from there.

No, that would be me!

Like Jeff says it's a question of subject, scale & airbrush.

I use the card mask technique for late war camo on Luftwaffe aircraft where the demarcation between colours is slightly blurred. Freehanding this in 1/72 wouldn't look right, though I do freehand Luftwaffe mottle in 1/72.

Karl

you do that Karl?? I didnt realize it. I actually bought stuff to try that tech. out so we'll see how it goes.

QUOTE: Originally posted by woodbeck3 you do that Karl?? I didnt realize it. I actually bought stuff to try that tech. out so we'll see how it goes.

Yup!

I usually just freehand the mottle.

This looks more accurate in 1/72 than freehanding, as the edges end up with an out of scale fade to them.

Karl

like everyone else here, you will get varried opinions and techniques, and yes, it is according to the subject and research pics if they are available. usually for WWII british birds, mask it.......for vietnam era birds, freehand and masking sometimes........just according to the pics you can find of it. some say the free hand camo is out of scale, but you can make tight enough lines to make it look good on 1/48 scale by freehanding. i've been to museum's and stepped away from the an aircraft with freehand camo at 48', and could still make out the soft demarcation lines, so i like free hand on subjects that were really free handed in the field.

here are some pics that may or may not help. the masked paint are done as follows: apply the lightest color of the camo job to the entire upper surface of the subject, or where ever applicable. then, draw out the pattern of the camo into the subject with a pencil very lightly. using some transparent and fairly wide masking tape, i try to cover the pencil line from one side of the subject to the other, so i can "trace" the demarcation line onto the masking tape. when this is done, i take the tape back off, and cut along the traced line and reapply the tape to the appropriate place on the subject. i do this one piece at a time, and when i get all the demarcation lines traced and applied, i will fill in the "field". when all the tape is applied, using elmer's tak/poster putty, i roll it into very thing ropes and follow the edge of the tape that i cut to the shape of the camo pattern. when all poster putty is applied, i spray the next color, and if you have another color, i do the same thing again. painstaking, but a nice effect.
freehand is self explainitory, just spray all colors from lightes to darkest, get the general shape of the camo goin good, then thin your paint to ultra thin, drop the pressure down low, and clean up/ tighten up the demarcation lines. good luck, later.

MASKED


FREEHAND


AND MASKED AGAIN


AND FREEHAND AGAIN

Salty, those are some awsome looking builds my friend.

I love the 109, it has that typical grungy look that they always seemed to acquire very quickly in the field.

Karl

QUOTE: i've been to museum's and stepped away from the an aircraft with freehand camo at 48', and could still make out the soft demarcation lines, so i like free hand on subjects that were really free handed in the field.

Also keep in mind that what you see in static displays and what was actually done during the period are frequently completely different. For a museum or static display they are putting together something that doesn't always represent how they originally looked.

I've seen pictures of painters in WWII aircraft factories using large rubber masks for the painting. I've also seen pictures of them using spray guns and "Freehand" painting. I took some pictures of an F-4C and an F-105D at Arnold AFB that are done in SEA camo and they were painted with a paint roller so the demarcations are razor sharp (and also incorrect!).

Also keep in mind that when something was painted in the field, or repainted after some damage was repaired, that the crews frequently did not have the time or tools to spray paint the camo so they just used brushes to paint with. I have a picture around here somewhere of a crew painting a B-17 using 5-gallon buckets and mops. The important things was to get the plane in the air, not how clean the camo looked.

Salty, nice pics!

And like everyone else has said, research is your safest option.
Music was spot on the money, given that the time a/c spent on the ground was kept to an absolute minimum, and a pretty a/c could be shot down just as quickly as an ugly one.
You will always get those 'I know all!' types of people, who will point out the smallest inaccuracy, but your research is all you can do, if and when it's available.

I try both mask and freehand on every model I do, and go with which ever one appears right from my point of view, comparred to what I could uncover in my research.







The BV 141 was done with mask only application, nice crisp hard edge.
The Panzer was done using both mask and rolled Blu Tak, for a soft edge camo scheme.
The Mi 24 was done purely freehand, and to date has been the most challenging of all the camo jobs I have done, only because it's 1/72 scale!