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Advise for PE railings


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G'day all,

 

Decided to get stuck into something a bit different from my normal builds (1/72 aircraft, the odd Star Wars kit and 1/700 battleships) and get stuck into a 1/350 scale Schleswig-Holstein (1908).

 

Having never worked with fence railings before, (though I have used other PE parts on several of my 1/700 builds) I'm wondering if anybody has any advise, in particular to when it comes to painting.

 

I'm sort of tossing up between painting the railings first and then installing, or vice-versa.

 

If the latter, what is the best way to paint it?  

Do you brush paint it, reducing the masking required or masking it to high hell and hitting it with the airbrush?

 

Cheers

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Bend: You want the PE in the final shape before you airbrush. Do this quite carefully. Ideally, the railing just sits at exactly the right position, with all bends exactly in place.

Paint: Airbrush the correct color(s).

Install. I choose a first point to install based on the shape. Perhaps some more complicated joggling or one of the ends. I put a drop of medium CA on the railing, carefully position and hold until it sets. From that initial spot, progress away further away, gluing it as you go. I like to use acrylic glues (Formula 506 Canopy Glue, Gator Grip, or other), so I'll glue a section and wait for that to set before moving on to the next section. Alternately, you may prefer to use CA instead for the entire railing, but still do one section at a time until you're done with that part.

Touch up if needed with airbrush if you can do so else a hairy stick

Flat coat to hide glue shine

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Hi GWAB, 

 

For my two cents' worth, I soak the PE frets in white spirit and then airbrush primer and paint on the railings before attaching them.

 

I use folding pliers to shape the individual railings and fix them with GS Hypo clear cement. It has two advantages over acrylic glues in that it's naturally sticky and dries in about 10 minutes with a flexible joint. The disadvantage is that it can be  bit stringy! After fitting, I go over any exposed brass bits of the railings with a brush.

 

Alan

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A hate brushes so will airbrush everything that's practical to.

 

A wonderful tip I had from the excellent Jim Baumann is to colour chain rails black with a high quality permanent black marker pen first of all - not paint to avoid the rapid build up of thickness, then airbrush them in a "downwards" direction aiming only to airbrush paint onto the stanchions and upper half of the railings themselves. This helps give a thinner appearance to the chain rails.

 

Even airbrushing good quality (i.e. very thin) paint rapidly builds up thickness and this is very apparent on railings in particular. Even if ignoring the black pen trick, I'd run away screaming from hand painted railings for reasons of paint thickness alone. Thick paint makes railings look clunky. Uneven paint thickness makes railings look worse than not having any IMHO.

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