using masks to paint roundels - flat earthers look away

[nmayhew]

I have seen some guys produce nice results using masks to paint RAF roundels on here

 

but it always bugs me that they make it far more fiddly than it really needs to be

 

you DO NOT need to base layer with white - 

that's such an old school myth from the days of brush painting with Airfix paints etc

 

i use MRP paints and have sprayed each colour down neat onto the camo and it works fine (it's the paint's awesomeness, not my skill!)

 

when doing a 4 colour roundel I found that it saved time by spraying the yellow and the white together ie no change in mask, then blue and red in a similar fashion

 

hopefully this step by step is of use and will encourage people to use masks...

 

all paints used here are MRP

 

 

 

 

roundel outline only in place; the rest of the mask is on the backing sheet...spray yellow -don't worry you can spray larger than you need...

 

 

next up, spray white

this is in the same sitting; no change to masks

 

 

 

Probably the only fiddly bit: putting the whole roundel back in.

Note strips of tape to keep it all together. Vinyl is more friendly to adjust vs kabuki which is much happier going over bumps and the odd compound curve. Go with whatever you prefer / is suitable for the particular job you are doing....

This can be done really quickly with MRP paints - less than an hour or so after spraying, but I left mine longer than that to be safe (I was not in a rush)

 

 

 

Removal of red and blue sections...

 

 

then spray the red...

 

 

 

I could have covered up the red dot to ensure no overspray but as long as you are careful there is no real need

Not sure I could do this in a scale smaller than 1/32.

 

 

 

Whilst paint dried I removed all of the extra masking tape.

 

 

and that's it - done!

 

[red Dog]

Nice result.

I'm guilty for the white backrgound colour first.

 

Been bitten by that before, especially on contrasted camouflage Under the roundels. When you mix your own paint with thinner, (and when you like it very light) I still would advocate having the white background. MRP might spray dense enough not to need that white base coat, but if you thin gunze with alcool a bit too much, you certainly will need it a good base layer.

 

Beside, however you turn it, you still need 4 colours. Since there is white in the RAF roundel, then you don't really loose any time or make it more complicated than what it should be by spraying first a full white roundel… IMHO

 

Whatever way you use you always have to uncover the mask, paint and at least cover some paint with mask again, and that's imho the tedious bit because of the alignement issue or the shape the vynil masks may sometime take.

 

Whichever your method It's well worth the work as I agree with you the end result is much better than decals

[nmayhew]

thanks for your interest

it was your excellent build that inspired my post actually - I didn't think that was the place to get into the whys and wherefores of masking

 

my main concern over the white base is that it *can* (I won't say "does") mean that you run a risk of white bleed through if everything doesn't line up

this is another advantage of spraying two colours at a time, rather than following some of the masking companies instructions of white base, put everything back, take one mask off and spray, replace and then take another mask off and spray etc etc

 

not a roundel, but i remember my first use of masks was balkenkreuz on a 109 and due to shrinkage i ended up with a miniscule white border which i simply wouldn't have had if i didn't spray the whole thing white first

in retrospect that was partly user error, but it was also definitely a function of the way in which i was instructed to use the masks...

 

i suppose whatever works for you is the 'best' way, but this post was also to show guys it's actually really simple

 

PS [and to half side-track my own thread!] 

the more i use them, the more i realise what a game changer MRP paints are - I am pretty average with an airbrush and would have struggled to do this with some of the paints i have used previously

and as i have said elsewhere, yes lots of good modellers can get *great* results with any number of paints, but I think MRP enables the average / beginner / aspirational (whatever you want to call them) modeller to many things better than they ever would have thought they could

 

 

[dennismcc]

I always use masks for my builds and normally I do not bother to paint the light colours first I only airbrushed the white first once, this was on a US star and once I had airbrushed the blue you could see the white peeping through, never again.

With RAF roundels I have changed my approach a bit I now airbrush the outer colour on before the camouflage, then apply the mask and paint the camouflage, this saves at least one stage of the process, really handy for the four colour fuselage roundels.

Worked a treat

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[nmayhew]

hi Dennis

 

yes i have seen you do this before - very nice technique!

i think if i try this i will benefit from the ability to lay the colours down on a black primer and get to 'black-base' the colours as i do with the rest of the camouflage

and you are right, it probably does skip at least one step so is a time saver

 

on my Spit though i tried to replicate the order of painting wrt the no walk lines - these were painting *before* the roundels; it's only very faint, but I quite like the idea of them just showing through - probably not accurate though lol!

 

cheers

Nick

 

PS i would show a pic but i don't photobucket etc - all the pics I posted were hotlinked from my posts to the MRP Fans Facebook page, and I haven't put the shot I am looking for up there yet! (doh)

 

 

[Ryan]

Flat earther jab was awesome.

 

Thanks for a nice SBS.

 

Ryan