Techniques for coloring IJN brass linoleum stays

[davidwaples]

Hi all,
I'm working on the FineMolds 1/350 IJN Amagiri. I'm wrestling with the best way to color the brass strips or stays that secure the linoleum to the deck. They are brass but the color photograph I saw doesn't look like a deep brass color. It almost looked more like aluminum in the photo. Anyway, I'm looking for thoughts about how to go about coloring these. Drybrush? Mask and paint? Color pencils? Looking forward to your thoughts on this.
Dave

[biggles2]

I've used coloring pencils (usually white) to highlite fine detail, even in 1/700, using the edge of the lead rather than the point. For long straight lines like that, I would place strips of Tamiya masking tape either side of the lines in case of errors, but coloring-pencil lead rubs off easily.

[DavidK]

Can someone explain why this didn't work?

I had a 1/700 IJN destroyer kit. I took the deck (which had raised lines for the brass linoleum stays molded in) and started by air brushing several coats of brass paint over the linoleum deck area. Then I put down several coats of Future finish over that. Third, I air brushed on two coats of linoleum deck brown over everything. Fourth, I took various things like sand paper, Xacto blade edge, etc. and tried to (carefully) remove the linoleum brown paint from the raised brass stays to expose the brass paint underneath. Pretty much everywhere that I got the brown paint off, I ended up exposing the underlying plastic gray rather than the brass paint.

I thought this had a good chance of working, but my results were very disappointing (and I don't know why).

Dave

[davidwaples]

It sounds like it might have worked. I've never tried your technique but I appreciate the logic. I'm facing the same issue myself which is how to represent the color on those stays. Maybe I can't explain why your technique didn't work but I can tell you what I'm going to try to do myself. First I painted the linoleum color. Then I masked it off and painted the gray surfaces of the deck along with the hull. Next is coming up but my plan is to remove the tape covering the linoleum, give it a clear flat coat for protection, then mask off the stays. My plan is to use a Prismacolor pencil in a brass color and lightly color the stays. My belief is that the flat coat will hold the pencil color better. Next I plan to remove the tape and add another protective finish for further weathering. If anyone has any better ideas I would love to hear it. I haven't jumped off the deep end yet.

It sounds from your message like you gave up on the project. If so I hope you try again and find a solution you're happy with.

Take care
Dave

[wefalck]

These brass battens (where does the term 'stay' come from ?) were about 40 mm wide and 4 mm thick by the photographic evidence. For this reason I would eliminate any moulded-on lines.

Scale representation of the the battens would be physically almost impossible, as the 40 mm width translates to 0.06 mm in 1/700 scale. I would not bother with this, probably.

The only half-way realistic approach, I think, would be to take some decal-sheet and paint an area with a very good 'aged' brass-paint (one that has virtually no visible flakes). From this you can try to cut very thin strips to be applied in the required pattern.

Another strategy could be to make paper patterns for the deck areas covered in linoleum. These patterns are used to transfer the deck shapes to a decal-sheet that is pre-painted in the linoleum colour. One then can lay-out the brass battens with a very fine gold-pigmented marker pen or you can mask-off the linoleum panels and spray-paint the battens in brass-colour. Cut out the deck shapes and apply the decals to the decks.

[DavidK]

It sounds like it might have worked. I've never tried your technique but I appreciate the logic. I'm facing the same issue myself which is how to represent the color on those stays. Maybe I can't explain why your technique didn't work but I can tell you what I'm going to try to do myself. First I painted the linoleum color. Then I masked it off and painted the gray surfaces of the deck along with the hull. Next is coming up but my plan is to remove the tape covering the linoleum, give it a clear flat coat for protection, then mask off the stays. My plan is to use a Prismacolor pencil in a brass color and lightly color the stays. My belief is that the flat coat will hold the pencil color better. Next I plan to remove the tape and add another protective finish for further weathering. If anyone has any better ideas I would love to hear it. I haven't jumped off the deep end yet.

It sounds from your message like you gave up on the project. If so I hope you try again and find a solution you're happy with.

Take care
Dave

I tried it twice on two different destroyer kits with slight variations in the applications of paint and Future, but got the same result both times.

Dave

[MatthewB]

I paint the linoleum.

Then give it a coat of clear (flat, gloss.... doesn't matter at this point).

Then you put a piece of masking tape down on one side of the brass strip.

Then you put a piece of masking tape down on the other side of the same strip.

And then you dry brush the brass color onto the strip.

Remove the masking tape, and move to the next strip.

MB

[biggles2]

I haven't tried this, but it sounds feasible. Before doing any painting, using the molded-on raised lines as a guide, scribe lines deep enough to seat fine brass rod. Sand off the raised lines, paint the linoleum decking, then glue in the brass wire rod. Will work easily in 1/350, and maybe in 1/700 as extremely fine brass rod is available.

[DavidK]

I haven't tried this, but it sounds feasible. Before doing any painting, using the molded-on raised lines as a guide, scribe lines deep enough to seat fine brass rod. Sand off the raised lines, paint the linoleum decking, then glue in the brass wire rod. Will work easily in 1/350, and maybe in 1/700 as extremely fine brass rod is available.

You can actually get brass PE sections of linoleum strip in 1/700 (GMM), and I've seen it used on one or two models shown at Nationals. What else I've heard about it is that it's a lot of work to eliminate the plastic strips and replace them (neatly) with the brass PE strips.

Dave

[Aros]

I've never tried this technique, but this is how I would do it.

Flatten the area and paint it linoleum. Use a knife and a ruler to scribe a very fine line where you want the stay to, well, stay. Finally give it a pinstribe wash. Either use a light yellow wash or experiment with those alcohol-based metallic inks.

I think this would Work best because those strips were so tiny we really only have to hint their existence.

[mister me]

decals :

I print 0.1mm (or 0.2mm, dont remember) thin bands using metallic gold (alps printer) on transparent decal paper.