Hello all,
I'm doing an F-22 in two tone silver/grey. I'm looking for techniques to get a soft line without excessive overspray. I normaly use a touchup gun then go back over the edges with an airbrush using the lighter base color to shapen them up. With the metalics I'm using it's not possible beause it leaves a shiny halo around the edge. Any ideas?

i think pencil/graphite would be your best bet

Mike,
Have you tried shooting some clear on it to see if the halo disappears? Maybe you can try it on a scrap piece. I use the same method as you to achieve soft lines, but have never used metalics. I know flat clears are real good at hiding the airbrush strokes, but not sure about gloss clear.

Hi Mike,
Gary's suggestion may well work but if it doesn't you could try making stand-off masks from stiff card. The idea is that they are held away from the work by 1/8" or so (you need to experiment on some scrap first. It depends on paint, temp,spray gun, pressure etc) and you then spray up to the edge with the gun at 90 degrees to the work. The greater the distance the more fuzzy will be the edge of the line.
Hope this helps.
Regards,

John.

John,
Happy New Year to you and the Gypos. I tried that but the tape used to hold the card down leaves gaps in the overspray. Might have to try something like putty around the radius of the mask so there are no gaps. Been looking at my kids Playdough pumping station


Mike

Hey Mike, follow what the other guys have said. It all works.

I did notice you mentioned that you are doing the two tone silver/gray scheme. I sincerely doubt there is any silver on a Raptor. It is a two tone gray camo on the real one. It has been a while since I was next to the real ones but they were all two tone gray for the low vis scheme.

I am guessing you could get a plastic model and get the paint numbers from it. I do know they routinely are pretty acurate in that area.

Mike,
We produce many of these in the model shop. F-22 is painted FS375 grey overall and then the camo is FS270. It has a distinct pattern and if you E-mail me your address I will send you the pattern and color samples. Airbrushing the perimeter of the pattern first, and then fogging in the center of the camo is the trick.

Hi Mike,
Yes I forgot to mention that. Last time I used this system I used a cople of layers of tape that is like servo tape only not as sticky. This held the mask well back from the edge. Playdough is an excellent idea although it could create protests from your kids.. I can imagine what would happen if they appeal to higher authority, "Honey, what have I told you about taking the kids toys? Now go play with your own"
Good Luck

John.

Hi,

use softtape by 3M. it is available in diameter of 6 mm (1/4 inch), 13 mm (1/2 inch) and 19 mm (3/4 inch). 13 and 19 mm are self adhesiv!

look here, it is German but the pictures are speaking......

http://www.rc-network.de/cgi-bin/bei...;f=51;t=000004

or here:

http://www.rc-network.de/magazin/art...2-0003-00.html

This stuff is also known as Door Apature Mask Tape and can be bought at automotive paint supply stores. I used it on this Rafale and it works well. You can control the crispness/fuzziness of the lines somewhat by how heavy you apply the paint along the masked seams.

Craig

This might work good for small airframes, but for models of that size these lines are much too crisp.....they need more fuzzyness on the edges. I simply use a very fine airbrush and spray it on. Works on 1/72nd scale, works on 1/7. Just be careful to always spray towards the color you are spraying (i.e. if you paint a circle with fuzzy edges, always spray towards the center of the circle, not from inside out).
The amount of paint coming out of these very fine brushes is limited, so you'll never notice that fine mist all over your airframe like you do with bigger guns. Works great, and doesnt leave that hard-edge look.....that really doesnt look just right...

Actually, the full scale Rafale (photo below) has pretty crisp lines and least when viewed in a comparable scale/perspective. Nevertheless, I would probably go a little lighter next time spraying near the foam tape.

Let's see a picture of yours to see if it "looks right".

Thanks guys,
Mark,
production F-22 have a silver sheen to them. Knowing your background you can guess at its properties. I ended up mixing about five parts silver to one part grey to get close. Inside it looks flat dark grey. In the sun it looks much lighter and shines a bit. This is going to be fun to see in cloudy weather. Using this much metalic prevents me from airbrushing around the radius with out leaving a silver halo. Here are a few shots of the work in progress.

Mike:

A few shots of Edgar Bruin doing his spectacular F-16 with Tiger scheme using tape similar to the 3M mentioned above.....

http://mypage.bluewin.ch/bruhin/Mode...yraum/F-16.htm

Tom

Looks good! -- don't dork it again! What motor you going to put in it this time?

@CraigG: yes, the rafale does have pretty sharp paintlines, i've seen it at various airshows here in europe. However, they are still way fuzzier than using your techniqe.
The US planes are waaaaaay fuzzier than the french paint theirs, so this is definetly not the way you want to go here.
Your plane looks great, though.....twin or single turbine?

Single Olympus. I'm waiting on a new ECU with the 2 second failsafe before the first flight. Fuzzy or crisp camo lines I'm a little worried about in flight visibility and I plan to fly with the big (white) wing tanks for added contrast.

Craig

I guess thats always the big factor with low-viz paintschemes....you never see them. I'm also worried with my little Avonds F-15, to be finished in USAF Air/Air scheme......