Well, I have finally gotten around to posting some progress photos of my A-36 project that has drug on for a couple of years now. I have the fuselage buttoned up, and pre-shaded the panel lines. In handling the kit, I broke off the axle for the propeller and the brass tube you see in the pictures will replace it. The first pictures are of the interior. The build is mostly OOB, but I am scratching a few details like seat belts and pilot armor. I will be using aftermarket metal machine guns for the ones mounted in the nose. Any comments and suggestions are welcome.
Now a question. What is everyone’s experience and recommendations about painting theater stripes on an aircraft? I have seen people do it before the main color, and then mask just the stripe, or paint it after the main color and mask off the rest of the aircraft. Which way is best? The picture below is the instructions showing the stripes. AM included them as decals, but I would rather try to paint them. Thanks for visiting and I look forward to your comments and suggestions.
I wouldn’t try the decals simply because they go across the dive brakes. Don’t know if it’s even possible to get them down in the holes. I painted the yellow first followed by gray, then olive drab. I look forward to seeing it finished!
On OD/NG schemes, I paint the theater stripes 1st, mask them, then I spray a LIGHT coat of dullcoat over the edges of the tape to prevent bleeding under. Tamiya 10mm tape is alittle big, but will do in a pinch. If you can find 8mm tape, that should be about perfect.
First - I like the way this is coming along. I love the cockpit, and it’s shaping up to be a great build.
On the theater stripes, I think the overwhelming wisdom will be to paint them first, then do the main colors. On my P-51B, I chose to paint them last for a couple of reasons:
My paint technique for the main color involves four coats, and if I were to have something masked, it would be a 5th to prevent bleeding. All that paint can build up on the stripes’ edges, I believe (though maybe I’m wrong, because they do still hold washes in rivet detail).
I don’t trust myself to not knock the masks around during the rest of the painting phase. Masking the rest of the plane instead of the stripes uses more materials, but I cut up plastic bag parts to save on tape.
I recommend spraying a light coat of gray over the olive drab first to make the coverage more uniform between top and bottom if you do decide to do it last.
Even if you decide to paint the stripes last, you don’t need to mask off the whole model if you’re using and airbrush. The overspray is minimal. Just mask off the wings, maybe a tad along the wing roots and up the fuselage sides. In either case, masking will be minimal.
I am working on a mustang for the GB currently with the same scheme Brandon used (different aircraft though). I also painted the white over the green and used a tip I’d seem in FSM to add a couple drops of grey to the white. I only had to do 2 coats (testors insignia white with a little bit of neutral grey mixed in) and I can’t tell that there is grey mixed in but it seemed to cover much better than white usually does.
All, since the stripes are going to be yellow, I think I am going to paint them first as I would worry about coverage over the OD top color. Thanks for the advice, and I will post more as I get time and energy to hit the bench.
Personally, I will always paint, instead of decal, whenever possible…and always after the main camo. I have gone the route you state above, but prefer doing things afterwards.
My process…using wing stripes as an example…
I’ll cut my tape to the size of the stripe and lay it were the stripe is to be…then place my masks along the edge of the stripe…remove the “stripe” tape. Bright colors (yellow/red/orange/etc) do not cover well at all, so I’ll spray/prime a flat white to cover the camo, then spray the final color.
