Hi there, I have got an Italeri MK.IX Spitfire in 1:72 ready to be painted. All my painting skills are with a brush, however, I am now the proud owner of a Badger Anthem airbrush and would very much like to give it a go. Is there any advice as to how go about it in terms of masking, getting the camo pattern right, hard edged or soft edged camo etc. Your help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Phil

Im in the same boat Phoenix, always painted with a brush so Im a rank airbrush newbie, but have a few things for ya. Practice, I had a couple of old ac layin around I just practiced on them for getting a feel for the ab. Masking I have found(the hard way) that you want to get some of the stickieness off the masking tape b4 applying it to already painted areas, and mask everything you dont want painted, I tried to get around this and it just didnt work for me, as for camo masking I have read and tried using Post it notes cut the camo outta the sticky part for hard edge, and cut the camo out close to the sticky part for soft edge camo, still working on that, but it seems to work ok, I need more practice tho....hope this helps, and hopefully some airbrush aces will let us in on the stuff that really works well

Bender

First and foremost practice, practice and more practice. Use the suggestion of practicing on old models. The more you practice the more familiar you become with your brush, your brushes capabilities and your capabilities. As far as masking goes, I use the blue 3M painters tape. It's low tack, doesn't leave a residue when pulled off and I've not had any problems with any leakage under the edge. I have only had one instance where the 3M tape pulled up some previous sprayed paint and that was the one time I sprayed a basecoat using polyscale acrylics. I usually use Tamiya Acrylics with no problems whatsoever with regard to the tape pulling it up. The 3M tape will give you a good hard edge camo if that's what your looking for-just be careful not to laydown too much paint or you'll have a pretty pronounced edge because of the thickness of the tape. As far as soft edge camo goes I have tried several methods: 3M post-it notes, index cards cut to shape and held off the model with blue tac and using blue tac rolled into a long 'snake' by itself. Of those three methods I liked the blue tac 'snake' the best though I have since taken up airbrushing any camo or demarcation lines freehand.

One question for you: what kind of paint are you using?

For a soft edged camo pattern, you really have to learn to use your ab. Use the finest pont needle and nozzle available and make sure they are ini perfect conditon. Replace them if the needle tip is bent or the nozzle has any deformation.Make sure they are absolutely clean. Get right down the the surface of the subject. No get closer. Use low air pressure and paint the outline of your pattern. You can move back and fill it it wth more paint flow and and air. Remember to aim to the innner portion of the pattern, towards what your filling in. If you must mask for a hard edge, again, keep the pressure low and paint away from the edge of the mask to keep your paint build up low and reduce the likelihood of getting paint under your mask. In time, with much practice, you'll be able to edge up to some pretty low edges and keep the paint to one side and get a nearly hard edge freehand without a mask.
Also, remember always to paint the lightest color first. For your Spit, e.g., do the undersides, then the brown and finish with the green. The only time you would do a light color over a dark would be something like the sand color in 1980's US armor MERDC patterns, or something similar.

Hi Phil,
All very good advice, for my 2 penneth worth, don't get down hearted and practice. There are many veriables, air pressure, paint/ thinner ratios etc and even things like humidity. What works one day may not work another. If it aint working change one of the veriables and practice. Don't try and cover in one pass, and practice. Any problems that you get, ask about on this forum and practice. Get to know your air brush and practice. Above all keep it clean and practice. For masking I use Tamiya masking tape, expensive but very good, 3M both green and blue. The Blue has less tack, 3M is available at Staples. I use Parafilm M for masking cockpits and I recently started using White Tack, which would be ideal for your Spit uper surface camouflage. If you would like some info on the White Tack thing drop me a line. Did I mention about practicing with your air brush
Mal

I also use Bare Metal Foil as a mask. Too expensive to use it for large areas, but for fine details where you need a perfect edge, it is great. Make sure it is being pulled back at almost 180 degrees when you remove it, and don't be afraid to nudge it a bit with your finger right at the crease when pulling it up. (Clean fingers, after the paint has dried) It will usually come up with no damage to the paint, and no reidue. Kike all masks, though, it is important to pull it off as soon as the paint is dry enough to do so safely.

Thanks to all of you for your advice. In answer to one question I use acrylics exclusively for painting. I have bought some oils for weathering but otherwise only acrylics.
My airbrush setup is far from ideal, I'm using canned air so high or low pressure are beyond my control. As far as soft or hard edged camo goes it should be an easy question to answer, look at a Spitfire in a museum! Or am I missing the point? In addition how do I protect an open cockpit and how do I avoid getting the wrong colour paint in the wheel wells when spraying the underside?
I used an aftermarket set of resin wheels for the Spit do they NEED to be primed? Any advice for masking a tiny canopy. By the way the colour scheme of this Spit is brown and grey. One more question, this Johnson's Klear I hear so much about, does anyone know if it's available in the UK and if so from where?
Well that's a lot of questions in what is at best a fragmented post but any answers would be much appreciated.

Phil

I have found acrylics much more difficult to use in an airbrush than enamels.


You'll need to do your painting in very small sessions as the can will loose internal pressure quickly.


Most Spits have an almost hard edge to the camo.


Small strips of masking tape in the wheel wells and don't add the gear until after you've painted. A small amout of facial tissue (Kleenex) in the cockpit.


They don't absolutely have to be primed but using acrylics you'll need to wash them thouroughly to insure good adhesion.


If you are using masking tape, cut it into tiny 1-2mm strips. Lay it down and cut at the corners. You could then use either largert strips or a liquid masking agent.


Look in the household cleaners section of your grocery store, since this is essentially floor wax.
Al :-)

Just a few hints on painting camouflage for a Spitfire: First of all, which one is it and what year are you supposed to be depicting it in? This has a bearing on how the paint should look. For example, if you are modelling one just back from the depot after repairs at the height of the Battle of Britain, it might have repaired areas with different demarkation lines, possibly even different shades. How feathered the edges of the temperate land scheme camo pattern appeared was often in the hands of the bloke spraying it. So looking at a pristine one from a museum or the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight might be somewhat misleading as to how a Spit might look 'at the time'.
Also bear in mind that there were actually two patterns early in WW2 for fighters (one was a mirror image of the other) Which one an aircraft got depended on whether it had an odd or even serial number believe it or not! Although as the war progressed, ridiculous aesthetic considerations such as this were dropped and just one scheme was adopted.
Many aircraft which had seen a bit of action had parts swapped from other aircraft too, although on a stressed skin aircraft like the Spitfire these would only be on easily detachable parts such as the cowlings or possibly even complete wings, of which there were several types for the various gun layouts, until a 'universal' wing appeared later in WW2.
Essentially all this boils down to creating a believable 'history' for the subject you are modelling. And then portraying how it would affect the appearance of the real thing. Go easy on weathering and grime though as very few Spitfires survived long enough with operational units to become really battered looking. Unless of course you are modelling one at an OTU, in which case, weather and batter away!
Dont forget to weather it more around the cockpit access hatch, the paint really took a battering!
Enjoy!

To control how fast the can loses its charge, place the can in a pan of lukewarm water while spraying. This keeps the can from getting too cold (the release of air under pressure causes a cold effect) and losing pressure too fast.



If your not going to paint the cockpit frames at the same time, stuff some kleenex or paper towel down into the cockpit to prevent the overspray into he cockpit. I recommend masking your canopy to expose the framework and then attach your canopy. This way you prevent overspray into the cockpit and the framework on the canopy gets the same paint sequence as the rest of the plane. If you really want to be enterprising, the first coat of paint on the canopy framework can be the interior cockpit color followed by the external paint colors. This way when you look at the canopy from inside out the framework is the interior color and when looking from outside in the framework is the exterior color.



The easiest way I've found is to paint the underside of the aircraft first, not careing if there is overspray into the wheel wells. After your finished with the underside, mask the immediate area surrounding the wells and then shoot the wheel well color into the wells.



I'm sure this is a matter of personal preference and experiences but I disagree. I have found through experimenting with air pressures and thinning that Tamiya Acrylics are by far the easiest paints to spray. Not only do they lay down good with great coverage but the clean-up is very easy.

The Spitfire that I'm painting is a MK.IX RAF 126th Squadron, Harrowbeer 1944. The camo is Dark Green (f.s.34079) / Medium Grey (f.s. 35237) with the underside painted in Light Ghost Grey (f.s. 36375). Just to let y'all know I'm a recently returned modeller (six months ago and it's great to be back). I have a great deal of experience with painting miniatures (w/acrylics, enamels are those smelly things I used to use before discovering acrylics) as I've been a tabletop wargamer for ten years and have worked for Games Workshop for the last year and a half. Precision modelling and the painting that goes with it is fairly new to me. Hence my numerous questions.
Back to the subject at hand. for the record I have fully assembled the model including the wheels and the canopy so the advice to avoid putting them on 'til after painting is too late. As far as the tissue in the cockpit sounds great. I'll be trying the techniques you've all suggested on an old kit before I try the Spit, thanks.

Phil