painting camo

[mikasa]

I had started on my 1/700 HMS Victorious and got interrupted for awhile. I'm back at it now. The build looks like it will be straightforward, but I'm a little concerned about painting the camo. I'd like to use the airbrush but am not sure how to create masks for it. I have a feeling that cutting masks out of masking tape is going to be too much of a challenge. Any tips on painting the camo on her? I'm modeling her in '42 at Operation Pedestal if that helps at all.

[drasticplastic]

This is what I did for my Flyhawk PoW: the instruction sheet has a color illustration of the camo, but it's less than half the size of the model so I took it to a local printer and had them enlarge the image to the size of the model. I used a printer service because my home printer doesn't take paper bigger than 8 1/2 x 11 inches. They will do the math. I got 3 B/W (cheaper) copies of a correctly scaled camo job for between 5 - 8 dollars. I will use that to trace the pattern on to Tamiya masking tape (the widest available) for my masks. I've used a similar method for various ship models requiring several color camo with unusual shapes. Beats trying to free-hand a brush job.

[mikasa]

This is what I did for my Flyhawk PoW: the instruction sheet has a color illustration of the camo, but it's less than half the size of the model so I took it to a local printer and had them enlarge the image to the size of the model. I used a printer service because my home printer doesn't take paper bigger than 8 1/2 x 11 inches. They will do the math. I got 3 B/W (cheaper) copies of a correctly scaled camo job for between 5 - 8 dollars. I will use that to trace the pattern on to Tamiya masking tape (the widest available) for my masks. I've used a similar method for various ship models requiring several color camo with unusual shapes. Beats trying to free-hand a brush job.

I'm a little apprehensive about using masking tape. (Yes, I agree, definitely beats trying to free-hand it). At what stage do you mask and paint? I'm thinking once the boats and guns and liferafts go on there are lots of bits that are going to be hard to mask over....

[drasticplastic]

Typically, I mask and paint the hull before any other construction. If the deck has a camo pattern it's painted before adding any detail. Small bits are easily touched up by hand. If the camo pattern extends up into the superstructures I usually free-hand them - I usually work in 1/700 so small camo areas are easy by hand.