Blimey! These Tamiya Roundels!

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Decaling
1

I consider myself an old beginner with scale modeling and am now working on my 4th model in about as many months. It’s a 1:48 Tamiya Spitfire MkV. My first attempt at airbrushing camo and using photo-etch. Everything was going so well until it came to the decals…

Am I correct in my impression that Tamiya Decals are pretty crummy? They look like stickers with oversaturated colors and never seem to “melt” onto the paint no matter how much solvaset or micro-sol I apply.

As went to apply the top wing RAF Roundels, I noticed that the decal was semi-transparent and the camo pattern was visible through it. “That won’t do,” I says. Then I remembered the white backing decal sheet buried under the sprues in the kit box, slid the Roundel decals carefully off the wings and back onto the backing paper, applied the white backing to the wing, let it dry, applied setting solution, then again applied the roundels. Not only was a sliver of white visible around and underneath the insignia, but the double layer of decal looked like a peel and stick sticker at that point. Blimey!

Disgusted, I took tamiya masking tape to the offending concentric circles - we can’t defend the Isles looking like that! But, unfortunately, no matter how i poked and stripped at them with the tape, small pieces of decal would not yield to my fury.

Fortunately, I had laid a generous coat of Aquagloss before “the stickereing” and my paint job remains mostly unscathed after the incomplete removal.

My question is this… Assuming the flakes of decal are impervious to tape, windex, etc. Should I perhaps mask off the circle area, sand them away, repaint with the grey cammo color, and lay down those new ones I ordered from eBay? My other option would be to paint them on with stencils but I am not sure I really want to attempt that at my skill level… Do you think I’m on the right track here with my solution?

2

Painting them on is the way to go man. Nothing irritates me more than to have a great paint job and then a finicky decal that doesn’t work right. I’d rather screw up painting it myself than have a bad decal ruin my work. It’s really not hard to paint the roundels and you already have the airbrush.

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Thanks. I will give painting a try. I have an old P-51 that I’ll draft into the RAF for practice :slight_smile:

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for roundels and the Japanese meat ball a circle cutter will do the job for you. Just make sure it’s a good one. If you get into U.S. and German insignia you can order stencils or buy machines to make them. I use a Cricut machine to cut my stencils.

5

You can order RAF roundels from Maketar Masks in Slovenia.

For the correct colours go to MRP paints and you want RAF Marking Yellow, BS 105 Oxford Blue (the Marking blue is wrong) and RAF Marking Red. For the white, use Vallejo Model Air Insignia White.

This is how they turm out on my 1/32 HKM Lancaster, the letters were masks too, ordered through their custom section.

If you purchase from Maketar they have a custom section and they are quite cheap. You need to know the size of the roundels and you can also order letters for serial numbers, Squadron codes too in the correct RAF font.

EDIT

All you need for 1/48 RAF spitfires apart from the smaller serial numbers which you can order from the custom section. they will come as individual letters and numbers in the size you want. Order more than you need of the custom stuff, the pack has plenty of stuff in and go for the Kabuki paper masks. they will last longer than the vinyl ones and don’t suffer from heat etc which will cause vinyl to warp, shrink move out of shape etc. They are a bit more expensive, but the results are better than the vinyl masks as the paper is more flexible for panel lines, ridges etc. Take a look at my ongoing lancaster build.

https://shop.maketar.com/?product=148-raf-supermarine-spitfires

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Wow, thank you for that excellent info - I am going to go for it on painting the roundels. I purchased a circle cutter and will look into the other letters and numbers stencils. For the samller decals which would be too difficult to stencil, would you jusy go with the kit decals then? I built an airfix kit that had great decals but these Tamiya ones are so thick…

By the way - beautiful job on that Lancaster. I hope one day to reach that skill level.

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Good luck on the painting once you do it and get comfortable with it you will never look back to decals again except the small ones you just can’t paint.

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Chris, if I can do it, anyone can you just have to think and plan carefully.

If you look in the aircraft section you will see my build of the Lancaster which shows you my techniques.

You will use lots of tape. I use Tamiya, Aizu and am getting to grips with AK’s new masking tape. I have about 10 different widths raging from 0.4mm to 40mm which will mark out etc anything from 1/72 up to whatever! I will use Tamiyas’ masking sheets too to cut out shapes etc. - see my Zoukei Mura Ki-45 build!

With RAF roundels I buy mine in from Maketar or have them custom done from their custom page depending on what I am doing. The reason is that the RAF had fixed size roundels etc the division within that was in ratios, not measurements.

For your spitfire stencils I suggest this

https://hgwmodels.cz/en/wet-transfers/688-spitfire-mk-ix-stencils-148-248049.html

They are wet transfers and act in the same way as decals except that when dry you remove the film and the stencil stays on giving it a painted on apperance. I would have used them on the Lancaster but they don’t have a dedicated set and I couldn’t see a set I could make use of, so I had to go with the text decals.

While not the Mk V spitfire stencils, you use from the set what you need and I think that they will mostly be right. It is quite a simple operation and will be much better than the tamiya stuff.

9

Well I went for painting those roundels last night. That’s Friday night in middle-aged-dad-world I guess :slight_smile:

I used an OLFA circle cutter and eye-balled the red to blue ratio. Colors are Vallejo model color Mohogany Brown and Dark Prussian Blue. I screwed up the placement ever so slightly but I’m going to live with it. and move on. This was a big step and I thank you for the encouragemnt. I love the colors and look of this compared to decals. I view this all as a learning ecercise and don’t expect to avchieve perfection yet, if ever. I am having a blast, so that’s what matters. Here are some photos of the before and after.

I think I will order masks for the four-color fuselage ones.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0V4n527mpRT4QwJZlfkONUDOg

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I always break out in hives immedietly before I apply decals. The anxiety is overwhelming. Anyway, I agree with you that Tamyia decals are too thick. Kitsworld makes nice decals.

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I will always recommend bought masks as they are done properly to scale.

Kudos to your first attempt, but the red circle is a little large. Never mind this is very much a learning process.

Now for the colours for RAF insignia.

White - Use Vallejo insignia white.

Yellow MRP RAF WWII Marking Yellow. for roundels and ID strips. This is a match to the chipset. RAF training yellow for training aircraft is a different shade.

https://mrpaint.sk/farby/lietadla/RAF?product_id=184

Marking Red. Used on roundels, stencil lines, text and squadron codes/serial numbers on night aircraft etc. Match to Chipset

https://mrpaint.sk/farby/lietadla/RAF?product_id=185

They have 2 blue colours. The one you should use is BS 105 Oxford Blue

https://mrpaint.sk/farby/lietadla/RAF?product_id=185

Spray them to full colour depth.

Day aircraft squadron codes use Vallejo RAF Sky 71.302. This is a chipset match to BS 210.

Always be prepared to look at using different paint brands to get what you need. AK and Mig Ammo are not as pigment rich as Vallejo and they have a policy for “Scale correct” paints so the same colours will be not a chipset match but lighter. I will dip into their colours if I have to, but am not very keen on them.

I use MRP, Vallejo Model Air, Vallejo Metal Color, AK Xtreme Metal and Tamiya X-13 which is an acceptable version of Japanese Aotake, but I never spray that one, I always use a paintbrush.

The more insignia you paint then the better your masking techniques will get. If you can, use Kabuki tape masks, and be prepared to make alterations for spacing, getting round lumps, bumps etc. It does take longer, and you need to think about how you are going to do it.

Also, make sure the base camo coat(s) are 110% cured and dry!

James

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James, thanks for the feedback and tips. Yes I realize the red circles are a bit big. I may go ahead and redo those however it doesn’t really bother me. I don’t expect to put this up for competition or anything so it’s practice for the next one. I’m just happy to learn a new skill and move away from decals. One thing i realized is that my circle cutter will not go small enough to create the smaller circles within the fuselage Roundels, so I may in fact order machine cut ones and repaint them all. This forum is such a great resource. Many thanks to you and all who replied!

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No problems Chris. Spread the knowledge and show how I do it. I will admit to ordering more masks than I will need. Then I have spares to use and they can, if pessible go on to a different project.

The Lancaster roundels and letters were done from the custom page on Maketar’s site. The wing roundels in real life were 102 inches. This comes down to about 90mm in 1/32 scale -/+ so I did the math and ordered 6 of them. I also ordered 6 of the fuselage roundels too as well as 4 sets of each letter and number for the aircraft serial and squadron code. Anything lefo over that can be used on another Lancaster has been put into a bag and sealed. Kabuki tape masks last much longer than vinyl as they are resistant to heat, light, temerature etc where as not so much with vinyl which has a short life.

The vinyl ones that came from DN models suffered in transit from temperature changes, humidity and I did have issues using them as they had shrunk and gone out of shape. The same with Top Notch camo masks which is a generic set and not done specifically for HK’s Lancaster and I had to add to the masks to make them fit.

My advice, Order more than you will need just in case of mistakes. Do the math and double check before ordering. Use Google, ask questions. Plan carefully,factor in wiggle room and be prepared to think on the fly and out of the box at the same time!

Most important. Work showly and have fun!