Hints & Tips

Camouflage demarcation in 1/48th scale - by Martin Bacon

When you look at models made by fellow modellers at shows and regular club meetings, it is always noticeable that on multi colour schemes, how different modellers produce different “edges” (that is where one colour meets it’s neighbouring colour). Over the years I have tried different methods to achieve the sort of result I am looking for. Here, I am putting down what little I have learnt in the hope that it might be of interest to some fellow modeller.

My main field of interest is WWII so my comments should be taken in context of pictures and documents of that period, although the techniques may be useful for models of other eras. My comments refer to painting schemes using an airbrush.

LUFTWAFFE

When modelling Luftwaffe aircraft, pictures are a must! The Luftwaffe were very innovative about camouflage and were virtually given carte blanche to adapt and develop schemes that were relevant to the particular front the unit in question was active on at the time. So a picture of the aircraft you are building is important.

With single seat fighters early on in the war the delineation between the colours, RLM (Reichsluftministerium) 65 Hellblau, 70 Schwarzgrun and 71 Dunkelgrun; then 65,71 and 02 RLM Grau was, IN GENERAL a hard edge. Photographs exist of Me109’s with a fairly soft line on the fuselage where the uppersurface colours meet the underside light blue, but the majority had hard lines. This is easy to replicate in 1/48^th, good old Tamiya masking tape! Simply paint the lighter colour and then when dry place a thin strip of tape along the desired line and paint the second colour. When airbrushing, ALWAYS aim the brush from the masked areas onto the surface to be painted. Never aim the nozzle at the masked line as this can cause an edge of paint to build up against the masking tape that when it is removed will leave a raised line of hard paint where the tape had been placed.

The ME109 E-4 “Yellow 5” of JG2 was masked and painted this way.

Click for a high resolution view of this model

RAF CAMOUFLAGE

The RAF were always more rigid in the use or more accurately “misuse “ of camouflage schemes. The schemes were painted using 1 inch (25mm) thick rubber mats to try and make all the aircraft the same. You only have to look at a line up of similar aircraft to realise that whilst it made schemes more consistent, they were by no means identical. Variables such as how accurately the mats were laid down, the distance the spray gun was held from the surface and the angle they were sprayed, i.e. against the mats or away from the mats all had a large bearing on the degree of softness of the edge.

If a softer line is required, this can be achieved in a number of ways.

A softer line is created by:-

a) having the masking raised off of the surface to be painted. The higher the masking is raised, the softer the line will be, or

b) using the airbrush freehand.

The method I have found that suits me best is to use sausages of “blu tac”. I roll the blu tac into sausages about 3mm in diameter and approx 125mm long. After painting the lighter camouflage colour and allowing it to dry, I place the sausages into position to create the outer edge of the second scheme and gently press it into position. Blu tac is great for this as it is naturally tacky without being sticky and best of all it doesn’t mark the paint, even matt colours. I continue using these sausages until the outer edges of all the areas to be painted are marked out. I then fill in the areas between the sausages with masking tape until all the lighter colour is covered. Then I can airbrush the darker colour. The only thing to remember at this point is to always airbrush at 90 degrees to the blu tac. By that I mean don’t aim the nozzle under the sausage as it is possible to force some paint under the sausage, but more importantly it will alter the appearance of the softness, compared to areas where the brush is held at 90 degrees. I have found that in 1/48^th scale this method gives me the level of softness that I am looking for and the Tempest II in the picture was painted using the blu tac method.

Click for a high resolution view of this model

I have tried airbrushing an RAF type scheme freehand, but as my airbrushing skills are best described as adequate, I ended up with a soft edge that was 12 inches scale width! That is why I use the blu tac method as it helps cover up my inadequacies.

There are many other ways of achieving the look that each modeller is after and all I have attempted here is to lay out the method that works for me. Who knows, it might work for you as well!

Martin Bacon