Painting stripes on Spinners

[compressorstall]

Hello Lads,

Can someone help me with painting a stripe on a spinner? This is for a Mosquito and I am not sure how to mask this. I need a white stripe mid spinner and a white tip. I have an olfa-P cutter and had some ideas, but thought I would ask on this forum if anyone had any advice.

Thanks,

EJ

[Thommo]

I always mask mine with strips of Tamiya tape, but am yet to achieve perfection this way - making the tape do a smooth even curve is difficult. I know of one guy who puts the spinner in a dremel, with the dremel in a vice and lets it spin, putting a brush of correct width to the spinner - never tried that but will one day. My guess is it would go OK with enamels, but not the acrylics I use which are buggers to prush paint.

[David Walker]

This should work as long as your spinner tapers pretty well from top to bottom. From an arts supply store find one of those plastic templates with the different sized circular openings in them that draftsmen use. Paint the lower part of the spinner the basic color you are going to use. Find the correct sized circle so that when you slip it over the spinner it stops where you want the lower edge of the stripe to be. Shoot the stripe color. Now use a smaller circle so that it stops where you want the TOP edge of the stripe to be and shoot the basic spinner color on the top of the spinner. You'll now have a stripe in the middle (or where-ever) on your spinner. Add one more smaller circular template to the tip and shoot the tip color and you're set. Just make sure the template is parallel to your work table each time you shoot the color or the stripe will be uneven.

Edited June 14, 2005 by David Walker

[jrallman]

parafilm is very flexible and can me molded over a spinner easily. it also cuts very easily so would you film the spinner, then either use a hobby blade in a holder to keep the line straight, or a sharpened pipe cutter.

[urloony]

Doing spinners from scratch can be difficult the actual patern when flattened out is a spiral that starts thin at the beginning and get progressively wider. There are many manufacturers who make decal sheets that also include decals for the spinner pattern. You may want to use one of these as a guide. I have one from a Bf-109 kit that I had and made a masking tape template from it. I don't recommend using the decal for the spinner but it can be used to make a good mask.

[Carbine]

I don't recommend using the decal for the spinner but it can be used to make a good mask.

I have used the 109 spiralsnauze decals from both Aeromaster and Eagle Editions, and they both work well. I just start at the base of the spinner and with the thickest part of the stripe and work my way up. make sure the spinner is well glossed with your glosscoat, and this will allow you to move the stripe around to get it right. Gently add your decal solution once she is in position, airbrush with dullcoat and your done. :o

[The Keeper]

I need a white stripe mid spinner and a white tip

Cutting Edge also makes Spiralschnauze masks but that won't help for what you're trying to do. David's technique with the circle template is probably your best bet. I might be tempted to apply BareMetalFoil to the spinner and then use a marker to approximate location. You'd then peel off the foil and clean up the lines using a French curve. Cut the right portions off and you've got a mask.

hth

[Pierre Sacha]

Hey Compressorstall,

A bit late sorry, but this is whatt I do. Cutting Tamiya tape in very narrow STRAIGHT strips is not going to work so what are u going to do now?

Well, cut the tape around a french curve or some other template (even a humbrol tin works fine) as long as u have a basic curved piece of narrow tape. Now u can apply it to the spinner and u will see it conforms to the spinner much better than a straight strip. the more curved the spinner becomes toward the point the smaller the radius of your Tamyia strip should be. It does not have to have the exact radius of your spinner. The elasticity of the Tamiya will take care of that.

Hope that helps.

Pierre

[MikeC]

Personally I support the circle template method, and make my own: a compass cutter and thin card are all that's needed. Blu-Tack can help in positioning and holding the template on the spinner.

HTH

[Thommo]

Thought I'd show you the results of adopting David Walkers suggestion using one of the templates for my 1/72 Matchbox P38 spinners - it works a treat. I did the white first, then placed thru suitable size hole in tempate & did the black, then put thru a slightly larger hole & did the red. I did this in the reverse order to David's way though - ie painted the pointy end first then worked back.

Only things to be careful of is scratching off paint on the sharp edge if template & getting the spinner straight. I secured spinner to template with bluetak while spraying. This beats my masking tape method by far

[David Walker]

Glad it worked out so well, and yeah, those spinners look great. I have a couple of Hs 129 spinners to do and I plan to do it this way rather than using decals.

[Miccara]

Ok - I’ll do my best to describe this. I mask the spinner with Tamiya tape and place it on a raised flat surface (usually a book or two).

Then I use the part holder stand with the clips on it (You know the one, every modelers bought one of these at some point, they have a heavy base with a rod coming up through it. At the top of the rod they attach a couple alligator clips to the ends of another rod) Place a new blade in the clip and set the height. Tighten everything up. By using one hand to hold the blade setup, I turn the spinner while pushing it against the blade. Adjust the height and do it again.

It works perfectly and only takes a couple of minutes.