Painting bombs and missiles?

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Techniques
1

Hi. When there is a ring around a bomb or missile, how do I paint it so that it is straight and not wobbly?

Thanks.

John

2

Mask it prior to painting.

Make sure the paint on your bomb / missile is thoroughly cured or use low-tack masking tape (not recommended if you are hand-brushing the paint as the paint can wick under the tape). Wrap it around the item to paint, and make sure the joint where the two ends come back together is even. If you are hand-brushing the band, make sure the edges of the tape are stuck tightly to the bomb body or you may get paint under the edges.

3

Okay, this is what i do…see if it makes sense:

  1. clip a loaded paint brush in a little clamp so that it’s bristles are pointing straignt up.
  2. stuff a little piece of sticky tac on the end of the bomb behind the fins (like where fuel would fire out if it was a rocket instead of a bomb)
  3. jam a pencil firmly in the sticky take giving you a bomb on stick much like a corndog
  4. hold the corndog bomb by the end of the pencil perpedicular to the brush with the bristles touching the bomb where you want the stripe
  5. rotate the bomb by turning the pencil.

If you use a flat brush, you get a nice even stripe around your bomb.

4

For modern missiles, it’s a lot easier to use thin strips of decal for the bands rather than trying to paint them. For WW2 bombs, I paint the bombs yellow, let the paint cure, mask the stripe area with a thin strip of tape, then spray it OD. Decal could also be used, but the compound curves of the bomb makes it a little tricky.

5

If you have to crank out a whole lot of striped bombs/missiles, there’s the clever striping machine featured in an article by H. Scott Edwards in the Dec. 2002 issue: http://www.finescale.com/fsm/default.aspx?id=140&c=i

6

Aaah, Lawrence, you tease, that article’s not online. I didn’t even know about FSM back then. Ah well, I’ll get by with the stripe decals that are in my Hasegawa kit.

7

I tried the decals. Maybe I just didn’t have enough patience to use them properly. In the case of missles and bombs, is there such a thing as to much decal setting solution? I notice that once I had the decal in place it kept sliding around.

Thanks

John

8

MicroSol and some of the other setting solutions will work just fine, but the problem is that you still have water underneath the decal causing it to slide around. That’s not necessarily a bad thing to start with since it lets you position the decal where you want it, but it needs to come out. I usually use a Q-Tip and ROLL it along the decal. You have to be careful not to move the decal, and it usually will move, but it will soak the water right out. If the decal moves, put a drop of water back on and it will float loose so you can move it again. Once it’s where you want it, paint it with MicroSol and it will look like it was painted on.

Note that when you use some of the setting solutions, specifically MicroSol (not sure about the others) the decal will wrinkle terribly when the solution hits it. It will smooth out in a few minutes.

9

Although I have not tried this…yet…it dawned on me while reading the thread about using “O” rings. These little rubber “O”'s can be purchased in many hardware stores usually in the plumbing section and you can by them in many size from mm to cm scale. If you were to paint the bomb/missle with the color of the stripe first, allow to dry and then slip the “O” ring on (making sure it has a snug fit and sits where the stripe should be, the ring should act as a “mask” when spraying the final color coat. The downside is that you will probably need quite a selection of “O” rings.

This may or may not work since I have yet to try it…but who knows until someone does!!!

RODC

10

That’s a great idea Rod, why has nobody thought of it. The only problem I see is that O-rings are made of round material (if you cut one and look at the end, the ring material itself is round). Where it sits on the bomb / missile / whatever it is only going to be actually touching in a very small area. Now small, flat rubber bands on the other hand …

11

This came up in a thread a while back, and Swanny suggested using Pactra tape for the stripes. I tried it and it worked really well. You could always use the Pactra tape for masking too. It’s thin and very pliable, so it goes around the curves very well.

Regards,