Hand painting the tube stripe

[Mr V[TK]]

This is for the hand painted look. if you seek perfect lines you best get some decals.

 

Items required:

Humbrol Paint.

Tamiya mask tape.

2b pencil (sharpened to a pin) to mark the ABS.

Pen to mark the tape.

Steady hands.

 

Mask some parallel lines. Press the tape down firm so bleeding does not occur. (This is when the paint seeps under the tape).

Tube stripes
 

 

Using a spacer for marking out

 

Draw the lines in with a 2b lead pencil.

 

First coat completed but will even out some of the lines with the second coat.

 

Time to remove the masking tape (Tamiya). I started by lightly cutting the paint line with a blade but soon realized i did not need it. 

Just one bleed area on the first stripe so will clean this later.


Happy days.

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

GREAT job on that, Paul!  Another hint if I may add one is this:  Before painting the blue on, hit the edges with a light coat of white paint and let it dry.  This will seal any minute openings on the edges of the tape and prevent any bleed through of the blue, providing crisp. sharp lines.  Fantastic work on the whole paint job, by the way, especially the vocoder!

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Wow, that's pretty neat!  Great tip from Joseph

[SgtGarand[TK]]

Wow, great job with those stripes. 

I used a stencil from trooper bay and even hit it first with white, having seen the suggestion here before. I still got a lot of bleed spots and uneven edges that I had to go back and touch up by hand. So I'm a little jealous. lol

[emtramone[TK]]

HA HA HA. look close at the pic after the first coat. There's a guys head on the newspaper that is aligned just right inside the frown. BTW seeing your post gives me confidence that I can do this. 

[Mr V[TK]]

2 hours ago, emtramone said:

HA HA HA. look close at the pic after the first coat. There's a guys head on the newspaper that is aligned just right inside the frown. BTW seeing your post gives me confidence that I can do this. 

I never notice that! Yes, the key is to cradle the helmet so your hand can paint comfortably.