**** DONE: Spitfire Mk IXc - James Edgar " Johnnie" Johnson - Aircraft of the Aces GB

[brucejscott]

Cool! I always get excited when I get to start painting the final colors, though I don't envy you on the stripes.

I don't envy me either Andy but slow, steady, patience and swearing should do the trick.

[Crimea_River]

Swearing helps but knowing stripes were 18" wide also helps. That's 3/8" in 1/48 scale so all you have to do is cut some tape to that width. Paint the white area first (5x 3/8" = 1-7/8" wide) then apply the masks and paint the black. Piece of cake. Remember too that the stripes tended to be slapped on in the field so straightness and consistency of width is not necessarily required.

[Wayne Little]

Like it so far Bruce!

[brucejscott]

Thanks Wayne. Thanks Andy. I was rereading an article about invasion stripes last night so I knew about the 18" wide for single engine aircraft and 24" wide for multi-engine but you just saved me time swearing at my calculater. Unfortunatly, never having done invasion stripes before, saying "all you have to do" is something like saying playing the saxaphone is easy, just blow in one end and move your fingers up and down the holes. I may just take a tip and overcoat with Future (Klear) first, that way if I fubar it to badly I can clean up the edges.

[ozhawk40]

Coming along nicely Bruce, well done.

[rochie]

nice work

[Crimea_River]

Unfortunatly, never having done invasion stripes before, saying "all you have to do" is something like saying playing the saxaphone is easy, just blow in one end and move your fingers up and down the holes.

Sorry Bruce, didn't mean to sound patronizing. I completely understand what you're saying and it was not intended to make the job sound easy. Sounds like you have a good plan and I look forward to seeing the results.

[brucejscott]

No offense taken at all Andy. It's just that masking and I don't always get along so any advice you could give would be most welcome.

[Crimea_River]

Well, OK. Without specifics, I'm not sure what problems you've had. Maybe bleed through? Use a good quality tape like Tamiya and make sure you burnish down at the edges to be painted. Use something round and hard, like the back of a brush handle. Let us know what questions you have. Happy to help.

[brucejscott]

Andy, It's always a combination of two things. Bleed thru and a paint ridge at the edge of the mask.

[Airframes]

Once you've masked the areas for the black stripes, over the white, paint a thin coat of white down the edges of the tape. This will seal the tape, and prevent bleed when the black is applied. If there are any ridges after the tape is removed, a very light sanding will remove these, and may even give the appearance of how the 'real thing' looked after brush application in the field.

[brucejscott]

Now that IS clever! Thank you very much! I shall give that a try.

[brucejscott]

Not much of an update. It's the best I can do from bed with some basic tools, brush and paint. Makes me feel better to be working on it though. Have a doctors appt. today and maybe he'll let me get up and move around other than going to the bathroom and sneaking to the bench.

[Crimea_River]

Looks good Bruce. Hope you're up and about soon.

[Airframes]

Same here.