p51tom

My Feedback: (1)

I am painting my Don Smith Hellcat using GetStencils and have a few questions. Although Vickie has been very helpful in answering any questions I had through E-mails. I was wondering if anyone has used two part stencils for the stars & bars and can show any photos of the procedure. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Thanks, P51Tom

Me410

I used Vicky's stencils, all went well, but I only used a one part mask.
There is a good info video at a UK stencil site, but I can't find it now, but one trick was very helpfull.

First off, I guess you know about the locator holes? Tiny holes at the top corners of each mask.
You take a thumb tack and push it through piece of masking tape with the sticky side towards the tack head.
You make two of these and stick them on the plane, they are to align your mask on the correct position on the plane, and second masks will go on the same align points.

Here is the trick that helped me. Take the first mask and lift the backing halfway off length wise and from the bottem. Extra hands helps here. Cut that part of the backing along the length and lift it right off, then put it back on with about a 1/4 inch of of the sticky part of the mask exposed.

Then very carefully place the mask onto your thumb tack align pins holding the mask snug lengthwise. Then run your hand along the middle lengthwise to stick the mask down to your model. note only the center 1/4 inch portion will be stuck down.

Lift slightly the bottemof the mask and carefully peel off the backing and stick the bottem half of the mask to yourmodel.
Then lift the top half slightly and peel the top half of the backing off and stick to model. Be VERY carefull you don't disturbe your tacks, you may even cut a small slit at the tack hole to ease lifting mask up to get at the backing.

Do your painting

Second mask goes on the same way, the tacks ensure alignment.

Hope this helps
Tom

p51tom

My Feedback: (1)

Thank you Me410 for your response. In my directions the alignment holes are mentioned. The problem is my masks do not have any holes in them. I e-mailed Vickie today asking if I can add these holes myself and if so how can things be lined up while making them.
Thanks, P51Tom

butlern

My Feedback: (15)

There should be "crosshairs" printed on each mask. Put the pinhole right in the center. That way, all masks will be in perfect register.

Are there no crosshairs on your masks?

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

what I did was to paint the blue, then making sure the star was centered in the circle then extended the bars out making sure the spacing was correct before sticking down the final mask for the white, not sure how Vickie is doing them now but mine came out nicely even the ones on the side of the fuse even though I needed to do some fancy masking over the inter coolers.

p51tom

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks for all the help! When I E-mailed Vicki I asked if I should make my own pin holes through the crosses. I was not sure because the directions state the holes are on the lower side of the stencil and my crosshairs on the top. I wanted another opinion before making my own holes and Vicki has not contacted me yet. We are going to have a few non-humid days this week so I wanted to paint these markings starting today. Thanks again for your help . I will make pinholes through the crosshairs.
Thanks, P51Tom

fw190

My Feedback: (37)

The way I have done it is to use a very clear transfer sheet for the second layer mask. There is no guessing it will be aligned.

p51tom

My Feedback: (1)

I made my own alignment holes and painted the marking on my Hellcat. The second mask was not lined up perfectly and did show some white. I can touch this with masking tape and an airbrush. I think it would work better if the second mask outline was little larger then the first. I will try to post some photos.
P51Tom

JSZ

My Feedback: (73)

I do it without pinholes. I put a piece of masking tape on the surface of the plane where the cross will be. Need to cut out the backing first. So you have the tape showing through. I then use a sharpie to color the tape. When done painting, pull stencil off but leave the tape down. There you have your alignment mark for the next stencil.