So I’m putting the finishing touches on SBD-1 (my 4th complete!), hopefully she’ll be done in a few nights, and I have some basic questions for you guys who are a wealth of knowledge:
How do you NOT get fingerprints on the model? I tried handling it where I thought were safe spots and wiping it down, but I still have some [B)]
How do you get those super crisp lines when masking?
Do you have to just eyeball the propeller tips or is there some sort of magic? Especially on the tricolor ones!
I’m hoping a lot of other stuff improves with practice, I’ll post pics when she’s all done and ask for more advice! And thanks in advance for your help, I’m learning so much! [8D]
Fingerprints: I wear cheap, throw away cotton gloves anytime I handle the model after it reaches the paint hangar.
I use 3M blue masking tape available at the local hardware store or Wal Mart. It is much thinner than the standard tan colored stuff and doesn’t have as much bleed under.
Stick a pin or toothpick into your work bench and put the propeller over it as a swivel. Mark the limit of the tip color on the work surface or a piece of paper and then mark the same spot on the next blade.
different anwsers on the same questions:
1 I always use cheap rubber gloves.
2 Tamiya tape: simply the best!
3 I mask the tips. I first spray a layer of yellow, then mask the tips off and then spray black.
yes - several different ways to achieve the same ends
1.) An old t shirt and I do my best to touch nothing more than the wing tips or broad section
of the fuselage
2) Tape (as per yardbird) or that 3M stretchable masking material
3.) see RemcoGrob
2: 3M Blue masking, Tamiya tape or silly putty pressed to a fine edge and then spray the paint in fine coats at a perpendicular angle to the masking, so the paint does not try to get under the masking if it has lifted in spots. For softer edges lift the edges of the mask a bit off the model and spray so the paint mists under the mask a bit.
3: I mask off the tips for each color with Tamiya tape, doing the inner color first and then the middle and then the tip.
As for the prop tips, painting props, even if they have simple orange-yellow tips (and if you look at real ones, that is a deep orange-yellow color), it’s one of my least favorite jobs in modeling. But now that I have these nifty Yellow Wings tricolor prop tip decals, I’m happy. But, what I normally do on the three color ones is use the proper three colors of decal film. If you don’t have those three colors of solid decal material (I recommend Expert’s Choice/Bare Metal for solid colors), you can find enough decals in your spares box with the correct three colors to “cut and paste” tips without having to worry about getting the three stripes painted exactly the right widths, and the tape bleeding under the tape (it’s hard to get good adhesion on a narrow prop tip), or, my big problem, having that “ridge” between the yellow and the black. So it’s decals for me when at all possible.
TOM
Regarding the question about tips: I think what you’re asking is how to mark off the distance from the end of the blade so they are all consistent ?
Yardbird’s method will work great if the prop blades are of consistent length. If you detect that there may be slight differences in blade length that you can’t (or don’t want to) correct - you can simply measure from the other direction.
I just use a shim of wood or plastic of the appropriate thickness, laid on a table. (For a tri-color you’d need to do this three times with various thickness shims. Place a pencil or scribe on top of the shim, put the tip of each blade down on the table and slide the blade across the scribe that is sitting on the shim. Voila !