I’m building the HAsegawa Follow Me Jeep with the crazy red and white checkers. I want to do that scheme because it would look great if I could pull it off. The problem is, I’m not sure how to. I painted it white. I could cut out the red checks but I could never get them to snuggle down over some of the bumps on that jeep. ANd I already cut them up [:-^] using them as a cutting guide. I tried to cut masks from Tamiya tape, but I can’t get 60 odd 1cm squares the same size. ANy help or do I just have to go with scheme 2 in regular OD?[%-)]
Dan… [sigh] Perhaps others can help further…but my personal best luck with that scheme was to lay strips of tape as it seems you have…cut a few squares and then walk away…go back and cut a few more…and walk away again.
This was the only time I had great success with that method.
HTH
Man, I’ve seen that kit (never built up of course) and I didn’t realize that you had to paint the checkers yourself! That sucks! I would have thought that it was a decal for sure.
I agree, cutting that many squares would be such a pain, I don’t think it would be worth it. I think I have an idea that would at least minimize the amount of cutting you would have to do.
First paint the entire area white. Next I was thinking of laying several (however many it takes) strips of tape, cut to the proper dimensions, and making a thatch pattern with them. Lay the vertical pieces first, then lay on top of that the horizontal pieces. Leave a space between the strips that is equal to the width of the tape. Once that was done, you’re left with a thatch, but you will have to cut out every other square (on every other row) to make a checker pattern. Paint the exposed area red and you should be left with the checker pattern.
I hope this works for you, or at least gives you some other ideas.
Doesn’t that kit come with the decals for the checkers? The ones with my kit were fantastic, they contour very well.
You other option is to paint the jeep white, then using red decal paper, apply all those little squares after you cut them out individually.[sigh]
It comes with one big sheet of red and white check decals. I didn;t think I could cut each piece out the proper size. If they had come in separate decals I might have used them. Was yours like this Hawkeye?
You have to cut the sheet into workable sections, it takes a bit of planning but they do give you enough to get the job done. It’s like hanging wallpaper, you have to plan to match the pattern without wasting half the roll.
I found that marking the centerline and working outward doing one half/side at a time worked best. Do the work before you assemble, it is easier.
Unfortunately, The decal sheet has been cut up. I tried using it as a guide to cut the tape because I thought the decals were unusable
You could do a modified version.
You got to remember these were usually painted in the field by the unit using them.
So if I use my masks and they aren’t exactly straight, I can say they painted it in the field, of course it’s sloppy! [;)]. Actually I think i might be able to salvage my red checker decals. A lot of them are just little edges or fractions of the decals so i can use the bad ones there and cut off the bad parts. Thanks for the help!