I just spent last evening doing a 2 color camo on a 1/72 hurricane. Is it normal for plane modelers (I do tanks mostly) to mask the camo for a hard edge, or is it ok to do it freehand with a softer edge. Whats the preffered way? [8D]
If you go back about 4 pages to RAf Camo, hard or soft edge, you can get a few peoples thinking on the subject.
Hurricanes were painted with fairly hard demarcation lines. By the time you scale that down to 1/72, or even 1/48, the demarcations would be sharp. I know a lot of modelers prefer to paint them freehand with soft edges, but in IMHO they are out of scale. And unless you are a real pro with an AB the soft edges will not hold up to close scrutiny because of excessive overspray. I trace the camo patterns onto heavy bond paper, apply the paper masks to the model, and spray at about a 45 degree angle away from the mask edge. This gives a very tight but not totally sharp demarcation. There are many other masking techniques, Tape, Blue Tac, Silly Putty, Frisket, etc. Try different methods on a scrap model and find the one that works best for you.
yeah, most RAF birds had sharp demarcation lines. i’ve heard that they actually had rubber mats as templates for each type of aircraft and laid them on the surface of the bird and sprayed away. thats why you see alot of the pics of RAF WWII aircraft with the same patterns and such.
i havent done a RAF bird as of yet so i prefer the free hand method. i thin my mm enamel down at 10 drops of color and 2 drops of white for scale effect, then add 32 drops of turpentine and drop my pressure to around 8 psi and go to town. ofcourse, your not gonna get it all right the first go around so there what seems like an endless cycle of touch ups to do. i can get a fairly sharp line and you really got get a magnifying glass to see the overspray. most people that view my pitiful efforts dont have a magnifying glass on hand so it works out fairly good for this modeller. later.
Yeah saltydog, but I’ve seen a lot of freehand paint jobs where the modeler doesn’t bother with the endless cycle of touchups. I get recruited as a judge for some of the local IPMS shows and Iv’e seen too many otherwise nice models with very noticeable overspray. They look great from about 3 feet away but close up they have a soft edge about 6’’ or more wide if scaled up.
I just like the look of a soft edge quite a bit more than a hard edge. The hard edge just doesn’t look righ to me, even though I know it’s not in scale. I’m not entering any contests however, so it doesn’t really matter. My advice would be to do it how it looks the best to you, reguardless. It’s your build and only you have to feel good about it, nobody else.
good advice, but from time to time I like to enter shows, just to see how I do, and for those occasions I will do “what has to be done” to have a chance, otherwise I do what looks nice. Its all fun anyway!
i know where ya comin’ from my friend, if i do a RAF bird, i’ll be masking it off because that is the way it was done for real. i certainly wasnt trying to belittle your sound advice in anyway.[;)] later.
I agree with Rick’s statement in that freehanding a Spitfire’s camo looks unrealistic. It has hard demarcation lines and looks odd when freehanded.
I did freehand my A-1 Skyraider’s camo paint job but it was a little softer in real life, but if I were going to enter it into a contest I would have used soft masks as I started to on mine.
Mike
Didn’t mean to offend anyone who likes to freehand camo. If you were doing a FW-190, freehand & soft edge is the way to go. But RAF Spits, Hurricanes, and others were painted with fairly sharp demarcations and to official patterns for the disruptive upper surfaces. They were not randomly applied as many of the Luftwaffe, Russian, French & others appear to have been. If you prefer the look of freehand, soft edge on your Spits & Hurricanes, great. It’s your model, time & $, so have fun & enjoy the ride. But the name of this Forum and its sponsoring magazine is Fine Scale Modeler, emphasize Scale.
By no means did you offend me Rick, in fact, you’d have to work pretty hard to approach offending me. I just happen to prefer the way it looks when freehanded. Even a freehand cammo job would look hard edged at scale I think, but I like the way the slightly soft edges look. If I was building for a contest, I’d mask for a hard edge, certainly, but I’m not. [:)]
Madda, glad I didn’t offend cause I sure didn’t mean to. I like the way soft edge looks also, if it’s well done. Merely trying to give miller41 some advice and nothing wrong with diversity of opinions.
Absolutely!!