Building Decals for Federation Ships

[djdood]

Beautiful work. Super-clean edges.

[Rick Smith]

Davec_24: Dave...thanks! There's actually no drybrushing on the Paladin's engines. It's
just layering of paint - adding more and more white to the blue and smaller and smaller
real estate taken up with each pass.

djdood: Hey. Thank you! I'm still contemplating adding the hull detail with an HB lead like
you did with your Fed ships. Kinda nervous though. Any tips?

[Davec_24]

Ah, I had wondered whether that effect was layered or dry brushed onto the engines. It looks cool, either way.

[djdood]

Two tips I can give for penciling in panel-lines -
Working under a magnifying lamp helped me a lot.
I also have the mini in a fixture to hold it (keep it from shaking in my hand) and then use some books to brace my forearm and hand on to keep that steady too, while I work.

I found that using the same techniques I learned for target shooting (bracing, breath-control, etc.) apply well to fine-detailing on minis. Tiny little body movements move a pencil point around a lot.

[OGOPTIMUS]

Very nicely done. I can't wait to see them with decals.

[Davec_24]

I found that using the same techniques I learned for target shooting (bracing, breath-control, etc.) apply well to fine-detailing on minis. Tiny little body movements move a pencil point around a lot.

Oddly enough, I do something similar (again learned from target shooting) for my models. It comes in especially handy when painting things like the bars on an aircraft canopy, as you only get one shot at these and can't go back and paint over any paint you get onto the transparent part of the canopy very easily.

[djdood]

I don't trust myself enough to free-hand those - I use Liquid-Mask on them

[Scoutdad]

I don't trust myself enough to free-hand those - I use Liquid-Mask on them

Come on Will! You know that liquid mask is for wimps.
You gotta free-hand them just like everyone else. I free-handed the Canopy struts on all of my 1/72 scale aircraft for use with Mustangs and Messerschmitts, so that just goes to show you that it can be done.

[djdood]

I trust Tony to do them. I don't trust me to do them.

[Davec_24]

I've never bothered masking canopies when I can just hand paint them, it seems to be easier to do it this way - especially if you were going to use masking tape instead of liquid masking stuff, that's just crazy! Have you ever tried painting the black rubber seals around canopy panes on some of the early cold war stuff though? That's the real test...

[djdood]

I masked off the panes of a Blue Thunder helicopter canopy, inside and out, with masking tape and that was enough work to scare me away permanently. I use liquidmask for anything like that now.

I envy the steady-handed like Scoutdad.

[Scoutdad]

I've never bothered masking canopies when I can just hand paint them, it seems to be easier to do it this way - especially if you were going to use masking tape instead of liquid masking stuff, that's just crazy! Have you ever tried painting the black rubber seals around canopy panes on some of the early cold war stuff though? That's the real test...

I have. First I painted the entire strut rubber black, thenI painted it white - leaving just a bit of black showing from the seal. The white then gets painted with whatever color the body is.

But the real test is also doing the inside of the canopy before assembly. Same process - paint it black, then white leaving a bit of the balck showing at the edges. Then paint the white with whatever the interior color is.

Ultimately, you end up with a clear canopy that's got struts painted the hull color outside, the intereior color inside, and you also have rubber seals showing on both the inside and the outside of the canopy.

[Davec_24]

The other way to do that is to paint the cockpit colour you want over the canopy bars on the outside of the canopy piece so that it shows through the canopy, and then paint the black and exterior colours on top ot it. This doesn't always have the desired effect if you have large areas of interior colour, as you can tell it is on the outside of the canopy rather than inside.

Also, there are some situations where you need to paint a similar line in yellow or white or such lining the canopy lines. For example, the Lightning I did has a yellow line running along the inside of the back end of the canopy windows (if that makes any sense - see my pictures of the Lightning if not) and for these I usually just paint the canopy lines and then paint the yellow/white lining over this using a fine brush.

[Rick Smith]

djdood: Thanks for that advice. I really appreciate it. I'll try it on a test saucer hull
first, then step to a finished model. The one thing that makes me a little nervous is
the raised panel lines that run into the center of the saucer have pretty good
definition. It's the circular ones that radiate out from the bridge that are often missing
or here-and there. You ever run into that problem?

I suppose my other option is to make a decal sheet that has the deflector grid on it
and make it in two parts to scoot around the bridge - kinda like the decal sheets for the
1/2500 scale Gizmotron models. I'll just have to play around in Adobe Illustrator and
see what I can come up with.

BUT...I am thankful for your advice.

Everyone else!: You guys make me want to assemble airplanes again! Haha.

[Scoutdad]

The one thing that makes me a little nervous is
the raised panel lines that run into the center of the saucer have pretty good
definition. It's the circular ones that radiate out from the bridge that are often missing
or here-and there. You ever run into that problem?

What you can do is measure the concentric rings...
Then, using a light artists pencil, make a series of light marks around the saucer where you want the rings...
Then, use a fine brush and thinned paint to "connect-the-dots" to make concentric rings.

It's really not as hard as it sounds.