Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Here's a nightmare scenario: The bays (missile and wheel) of the Academy F-22 should be white, but there are enough wires and pipes in the bay to make it look like a plate of spaghetti. And of course, all the wires are either black or silver (with little blue cable ties every foot or so, but those I can deal with)

SO as I'm painting this, I've got it sprayed white, and I'm starting to paint the wires. Everything's going great, I've got my favorite 000000000 brush with one hair, the black is loaded up, I'm going along the wire, and whoops, it goes off the wire. SO when it's dry, I touch up the mistake with some white, and whoops, that paints over the black wire. SO i touch up the wire with some black, and whoops, it goes on the white.... and so on and so on until the paint seems like it's an inch thick on the plastic.

There's got to be a better way.

Any ideas? One that I thought of would be to paint the whole thing black acrylic, then paint the whole thing white enamel, and using say, a pencil eraser dipped in thinner, rub over the wires, wiping off the white, and leaving the black.

I tried:

-using white acrylic, with black enamel for the wires, and using thinner to clean up any boo-boos, but the enamel seemed to stain the white, and didn't come off all the way.

-the endless touch-up cycle

-letting a thinned white flow up against the wires, to cover up mistakes, but it's not opaque enough to hide the black.

What do you guys do?!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Sorry, I thought it was added detail wiring. Yeah, painting molded detail is a real pain so the Sharpie is the easiest way to go. It's a good idea to seal the paint with clearcoat or Future first to keep the ink from bleeding beyond where you want it.

Edit: Forgot to add that you definitely DON'T want to paint OVER Sharpie ink because it WILL bleed through.

Edited by johnsg
Link to post
Share on other sites

That's even true if you Future over Sharpie. You get this wierd purple tie-dye thing going on. OF course, this could be really cool, but I have no use for it in a model. I'll try the Sharpie on the wheel wells, and if it goes well (no pun intended) I'll strip the bomb bay and try it there. Keeping my fingers crossed HARD

Link to post
Share on other sites
That's even true if you Future over Sharpie. You get this wierd purple tie-dye thing going on. OF course, this could be really cool, but I have no use for it in a model. I'll try the Sharpie on the wheel wells, and if it goes well (no pun intended) I'll strip the bomb bay and try it there. Keeping my fingers crossed HARD

There is a product called "Gundam markers." I know Bandai make them, and others may as well. There's a ton available through vendors like Amazon. I found mine at miniatures/war game oriented hobby/game shop locally.

I found that these seem to be genuine paint markers, rather than the "Magic Marker" style ink in Sharpies which gives the bleeding effect. I can't guarantee they'll work better in your gear bays, but in the places I've used them, they seem to resist bleeding.

DG

Link to post
Share on other sites
There is a product called "Gundam markers." I know Bandai make them, and others may as well. There's a ton available through vendors like Amazon. I found mine at miniatures/war game oriented hobby/game shop locally.

I found that these seem to be genuine paint markers, rather than the "Magic Marker" style ink in Sharpies which gives the bleeding effect. I can't guarantee they'll work better in your gear bays, but in the places I've used them, they seem to resist bleeding.

DG

I like the Gundam Marker idea. You could also try some of the fine tipped paint pens available at arts and crafts stores like Michael's or AC Moore. If there is room in the area that you are detailing, following the Future coat, small pieces of Post-it note paper, aluminum foil, or masking tape could be used to protect the painted areas from the dreaded shaking hand... As for the wire ties, you could try small strips of decal material. This would allow for even cutting, size, and spacing of the wire ties. The only challenge, is to fight the surface tension that wants them to go in a direction opposite of where you want them to go. I encountered a similar problem when applying the small strips of decal film to the tail rotor of a recent project. The solution was a mix of Micro sol and Solvaset decal setting solutions.

CGJR25.jpg

Hope this helps. Good luck on your project.

David

Link to post
Share on other sites

This is no doubt one of the toughest things in modeling contemporary jet aircraft. Okay that being said I have found that painting the base white then using a coat of future to seal it is the first step. Then what I do is thin down some Tamiya smoke and wash it into the panels and the recesses of the raised detail. This gives the impression of shadow and some grime that accumulates in these areas. Don't go overboard on this If I need to I can dry brush to pick out some of the white details. Finally I use a Sharpie with a really fine tip, and I do not seal it again with future. I have used Polly S flat before, and as long as you don't soak it, the Sharpie holds up okay. But in a wheel bay or weapons bay I just leave it, I don't seal it. If you screw up on the sharpie, no worries! A little windex and a cotton but will take it right up and you are ready to try again!

Link to post
Share on other sites

I've found that in cases like that you can't beat magnification. Pick yourself up a cheap eye-loupe (here's the set I have) and see if that doesn't help. Other than that, make sure your brush tips are in good shape (no split ends), your paint is thinned correctly, and you're in a zen-like state of relaxation. Put all those together and you should be able to paint all kinds of fiddly details.

:cheers:

Link to post
Share on other sites

If this is raised detail I suggest experimenting with dry brushing. Use black or a dark gray as well as a small brush and just slowly scrub it on. Once you have it done use a white wash to cover up all the overdone areas you want to keep white.

HTH and God Bless,

Ken

Link to post
Share on other sites

find there really isn't any alternative than the good old steady hand - but if you paint whilst anchoring your wrist on the table and using your other hand to help steady your painting hand, you can pretty much cancel out most of the 'wobbles' .

When I load the tip of the brush with paint, I use very small movements and gently lower the brush in motion onto the subject whilst painting up and down - much more precise than trying to hold the tip of the brush rock-still on contact.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 years later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...