Spitfire IX invasion stripes

[Procopius]

So when I decided I would build model airplanes to calm myself down prior to my wedding (because compared to the fun of dueling sets of parents, hunting for a rogue cannon barrel while glue dries on your hand in the carpet is a right lark), the first thing I did was build the Airfix Spitfire IXc as my boyhood hero "Johnnie" Johnson's Spitfire. I resolved to follow ALL the directions, AND to put the landing gear down, to escape the spectre of a grown man racing through the house making airplane noises...not, of course, you understand, that I would ever do such a thing. Anyway, I applied all the decals, and...dear god man! Those invasion stripes look horrible! Like a stripey tarp is covering the wings! This will never do. But it did, actually, because I had NO IDEA how else to do things.

Flash forward six months. I'm older, wi---well, maybe not wiser, but since I was just praised for, for the first time, doing a good job packing away my wife's birdcages for her drive back to graduate school, I've at least demonstrated the capacity to learn. But not very quickly.

Anyway, with the hated doves now four hundred miles away, it is again safe to paint. Having recently found some 6mm Tamiya tape at a local Hobby Lobby, I got the notion that 6mm was about the width of the Spitfire's invasion stripes, and I had another Spitfire IX built and painted, which meant...OH MY GOODNESS!

Of course, I always have to do things in the least intuitive manner known to man. Instead of painting the whole area white and then adding black stripes, I taped the whole area to be striped off, then removed the strips over the black parts and painted them, like so:

So clever. And I wonder why they never seem to promote me at work.

I wised up for the fuselage stripes, and the net effect is, I think, rather an improvement:

The insidious effects of my hated foe, Capillary Action, may be noted along the edges. This would never have happened if you'd stuck with raised rivets, gentlemen!

All in all, I'm very excited by this---I know it's old hat to most if not all of you reading this (although on the off chance that someone who hadn't heard of this somehow DOES stumble across this, I hope my mistakes prove illuminating), but I love figuring out new ways to do things better and learning things in general, which is why this is such a great hobby.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Procopius

[Bertie McBoatface]

Nice to see skills developing. That moment when I remove the masks always give me such a rush!

[Bullardino]

Nice result there. Just one point, shouldn't be the d-day stripes also on the landig gear doors?

[Giorgio N]

One solution to avoid paint bleeding is to paint with the existing colour after masking first. In your case it's most likely you painted the white first... after you have masked the areas that have to stay white, paint more white over the unmasked areas. In this way the white paint will bleed first, so blocking the gaps. As it will bleed over other white paint, it will not be a big problem. When you'll add the black coat this will not bleed as the previous white coat will have (hopefully) blocked any gap in the masking.

[Dave A]

Now THAT's a tip, Giorgio!

[crookedmouth]

Now THAT's a tip, Giorgio!

I'll say. Shame we can't give posts like this "helpful" votes!

[Procopius]

Nice result there. Just one point, shouldn't be the d-day stripes also on the landig gear doors?

There will be, though they probably won't match up entirely. Progress is slow, but hopefully steady.

One solution to avoid paint bleeding is to paint with the existing colour after masking first. In your case it's most likely you painted the white first... after you have masked the areas that have to stay white, paint more white over the unmasked areas. In this way the white paint will bleed first, so blocking the gaps. As it will bleed over other white paint, it will not be a big problem. When you'll add the black coat this will not bleed as the previous white coat will have (hopefully) blocked any gap in the masking.

Oho! Thank you very much!

[Bertie McBoatface]

Alternatively, you could try decal setting solutions.

There are many on the market and they are used in slightly different ways but essentially they soften decals and encourage then to 'suck' themselves down to the model surface, conforming to the lumps and bumps and even rivets and panel lines. Your Spit with its steep cannon bulges would still be a challenge but these products are well worth the investment as you only use a tiny amount and a pot lasts for years.

[Procopius]

Alternatively, you could try decal setting solutions.

There are many on the market and they are used in slightly different ways but essentially they soften decals and encourage then to 'suck' themselves down to the model surface, conforming to the lumps and bumps and even rivets and panel lines. Your Spit with its steep cannon bulges would still be a challenge but these products are well worth the investment as you only use a tiny amount and a pot lasts for years.

I use those also, but with the earlier Spitfire, I think my lack of a glosscoat sank me.

[Procopius]

Sadly, Giorgio's suggestion didn't work, or only worked partially, and I still had black flowing into the crevices. I rather more than suspect the fault lies on my end.

Here's the mostly finished pre-glosscoat final aircraft. I also added the sky band at the tail (although it looks a little off) as the decal version is intensely lurid. Sadly, my spare sky letter decals are too big for this model, so the rather poor JE-J that came with the kit will be pressed into service.

[Hurry]

Evening Procopius!

The best way to do stripes that I've found... is to get a ruler and mark out on leading and trailing edge where you want the stripes to be located. Then free hand a line between the two points and paint the stripes by hand. This essentially turns it into the same as coloring between the lines. Paint the stripes by hand and worry not if the stripe edges aren't perfect... because neither was the real thing. Invasion stripes were brush painted onto the various aircraft they were employed on. So perfection was not the name of the game, just the application of said stripes.

Regards,

Hurry

[Procopius]

Paint the stripes by hand and worry not if the stripe edges aren't perfect... because neither was the real thing. Invasion stripes were brush painted onto the various aircraft they were employed on. So perfection was not the name of the game, just the application of said stripes.

Regards,

Hurry

I console myself with this thought, but for some awful reason, I have a terrible time even approximating a straight line freehand, even coloring in the lines. Perhaps as I grow bolder!

[Martian]

Gloss coat your model, then use small, narrow strips of black and white decal strip to tidy up the lines, apply a decal solvent over them along with the other decals and when you apply the final matt coat of varninsh your problem will have vitualy disappeared.

Martin

[Doug Rogers]

I think Hurry has a valid point here. How many of us have agonised and deliberated over nice neat invasion stripes, when there are photos on the web of the real thing being applied with what appears to be six inch house painting brushes.

Have to admit I don't have a built model with invasion stripes on it yet, but when I do, I think I'll have a go at doing it with a brush.

Your Spit looks great Procopius, hope mine turns out as well when I get around to it!