Does anybody know how to make a practical airbrushing mask for creating nice soft edges? I must admit I build solid-color tanks only because I’m afraid of camo patterns with soft edges-I had extreme problems with creating soft edge camo in the past. My Badger Anthem just wasn’t up to it and I suspect it requires some unbelievably precise airbrush spraying very thin, sharp edges to attempt it freehand.
In the past I tried shooting through an index card with an irregular hole punched in it. You attempt to create a soft edge by holding the card a few milimeters away from the model but the whole thing only increased my frustration. The card flaps back and forth in the strong air stream and, to make it worse, it covers the area being airbrushed making you blind because you can’t see the pattern as it appears under the card. You’re forced to stop constantly to check the progress underneath the card.
I just ordered a roll of Parafilm and will experiment with it but this type of masking foil is for creating sharp camo edges and this is not what I’m looking for really.
If your problem s that you can’t see what you’re doing with the card, you could try the same technique only cut a hole in apuice of transparency film. It should be heavy enough to hold up to the air stream and you will be able to see through it, at least at first.
I’ve always had lots of success with the old poster putty and paper pattern trick. Rather than holding the paper mask with your fingers, roll the poster putter (or some use silly putty) into thin “snakes” and apply it to your model. Then take your paper pattern and apply it to the top of the putty so that the paper is held only a milimeter or two off the model. Spray your paint making sure your AB is pretty close to a 90 degree angle from the surface. That should give you a fairly nice soft demarcation line. If there’s any slight overspray, I usually go back and rub it out with a pencil eraser. That does the trick for me. Hope this helps!
Blue Tack, silly putty, playdough and clay all make great soft edge masks, just roll it out into a thin rope and arrange on the model. You can use tape or paper to cover the areas you don’t want to paint. The diameter of your rope controls the degree of diffusion. Oh, and don’t let silly putty sit too long on the model. It is soft enough that it will settle in and around objects, like hand rails, cleats, machine gun barrels, etc., making it difficult to remove.
I suspect the easiest way would actually be to just practice withe your airbrush. I have Badger 200NH which is a single action version of the Anthem, and it is well within its capabilities to to do free hand camo on armor. My first use actually was a 1/72 Tiger with a typical 3 color German camo that came out well. The trick is of course to balance the variables of air pressure, needle position, spraying distance from the model, and paint thinning. It’s certainly harder to learn on a double action Anthem than on a single action 200NH because you have to get your needle position set while you’re spraying on your model, but with some practice on plastic milk jugs and maybe a sacrificial kit if you have one, you could probably get the hang of it reasonably quickly.
Amen to that! You have a good tool, learn to use it. Practice, practice, then pratcie some more.
One thing to do is point the brush into the the area being painted to reduce overspray. With a fine tip nad practice, you should be able to get an almost hard line even in 1/72 scale.