WWII LUFTWAFFE CAMO

[IRONDOC]

Hello all, question

Here’s what I got and need help with.

Dml 1/48 JU-88G-1/10 night fighter kit.

I took a another poke at airbrushing a continuous wiggly line that covers the entire upper surface fuselage, wings, engine nacelles vertical stab, rudder, after allot of practice on a sheet of paper and old model, I thought I had it until curves came into the picture, it didn’t take long for frustration to set in with spotting, too thin, too thick paint line's,I gave up and went with an easier scheme, is there an easy way to do this particular camo scheme or a trick other than allot of patience and high skill, I really don’t see too many kits in the critique or display case, with this camo job here, and wondering how many have attempted this and threw in the towel like I did? Also are there any good stencils for the “balkenkreuz†for this kit and other large German twin engine aircraft, thanks for any help in the matter.

[Netz]

Nope, I don't think there is an easy way, you just need to have a good consistent paint flow, and just keep going. Also their not really continuous, it might appear that way, but if you break it down to sections it might not be as intimidating.

Tamiya Tape is your best bet for a stencil, not much to doing the crosses unless you want to do the early style with the pin stripe, but there are a few photo etch stencils out there, but most likely sized for a fighter.

Curt

[denstore]

Wouldn't it be possible to do this kind of camo with blu tack?

[IRONDOC]

Thanks Netz,

I dug out an old FSM magazine from 1997 and there’s good directions on making a stencil. as for the wiggly line I’m going to look into a paint pen or equivalent and test it out,in my case good and consistent dont jive .

take care

DOC,

[GGoheen]

Keep in mind that those squiggles are not as perfect as you might think. If you look at several black and white period photographs, say in Luftwaffe Camouflage & Markings - Vol III, they are anything but perfect on the Ju 88's. They vary greatly in terms of thickness and opacity so possibly just do a few test runs on some scrap plastic to work out the kinks and then just go for it.

Best,

Greg

[Netz]

I think Blue Tac would be a pia, and you'd have to do the camo in revers, and I still don't think it would look right, same with the pen as these were sprayed on and you do need that feathered edge.

As Greg said, it docent have to be perfect,you just don't want the tale tell signs of air-brush splatter, runs, the ever dreaded spat mark that looks like a 40 legged tick.

I say go free hand, then any of the screw ups I mentioned go back with the base color and cut them out, I bet you won't be able to tell where the oop's were.

Curt

[matrixone]

While it would be possible to use Blue Tac to reverse mask a squiggle camouflage pattern it would also be a massive amount of time and work to do so, the best way to paint this type of camouflage pattern is airbrush it free handed like you tried to do.

If you attempt to try this type of paint scheme again I suggest you paint all the difficult areas first and get them out of the way and then move on to the easy to paint areas, this makes painting the squiggles much easier.

Below is a 1/72 scale Heinkel He 219J-5 I just finished and painted it in a squiggle camo scheme. Paints used were Model Master enamels sprayed through an Iwata Revolution BR airbrush.

Matrixone

[denstore]

While it would be possible to use Blue Tac to reverse mask a squiggle camouflage pattern it would also be a massive amount of time and work to do so, the best way to paint this type of camouflage pattern is airbrush it free handed like you tried to do.

Yes, it is the best and most authentic way, but some people have a hard time doing it. It usually takes a couple of attempts until you get good result, especially in curved areas, and transitions from vertical to horizontal.

And of the alternatives, I think the blu tack worm mask is the best way to pull it of. Pens will be to sharp. All other techniques I can think of will be as time consuming as the blu tack masking.

[toniosky]

You could try a modular build next time. If it is possible to paint big parts before cementing them that will painting a complicated camo more easy, or should I say "less difficult"

[The Mikester]

Painting Luftwaffe aircraft reaslistically requires:

1. A decent airbrush, I prefer a .2 mm needle but you can get away with bigger in most instances.

2. Good paint, properly thinned. I prefer Gunze, the opacity even when thin is remarkable.

3. Practice.

4. Patience.

If you don't get the results you want refer to steps 3 and 4!

Edit:

Custom paint masks are available here:

Ad Astra

Edited January 27, 2012 by The Mikester