Painting Markings

This blog covers the aircraft's war paint

Overview

Camouflage Details

One of the first issues encountered was identifying the colours used on the markings and regardless of how much searching no commercial standard could be identified, unlike the main colours. After discussing this with the paint supplier it was decided to use the BS381C standard and find colours that were as close as practical. With that decided an order was placed for the six [6] different colours that had to be used.

Dark Earth - BS381 350 plus 22.5 K73 per liter {match to Vaellio Model Paints]

Forest Green - BS381 241

Duck Egg Green [Eu de Nil] BS381 216

Underside - Duck Egg Green BS381C

Roundel Blue - Roundel Blue BS381C 110

White - Pure White W351

Bold Red - BS381C 564

Canary Yellow - BS381C 309

Lt Aircraft Grey - BS381 627

Black - Satin Black K73

An issue that had to be resolved was the orange peel from applying 2K clear to the port wing. After completing this task it was decided that a coat of base should be re-applied but it crinkled everywhere it contacted any clear that remained, a quick read showed that this is a no-no. 

The problem had to be resolved by stripping back the wing but it was now clear that all base colour would have to be applied before attempting to apply the 2K clear.

As an attempt to control weight it has been decided to use vinyl film and spray paint for the roundels and tri-colour. A low tack vinyl was selected and were cut after producing the necessary graphics using the sketch above to obtain the correct proportions allowing all these profiles to be masked up in one operation.

After the airframe and wings were in undercoated, the vinyl is applied after the relevant colours applied by removing the relevant mask, finally when each colour was dry each mask was reapplied to complete that marking. 

Applying these decals is a skill but the use of clean water with a solid squirt of washing detergent is a must. They were floated into position and massaged into their correct location. 

Disposable towels are used to remove excess water with particular attentions paid to edges to ensure they are as tight as possible. The large decals we all cut into manageable segments for this task as they cannot be handled as a single unit.

Generally, I started with the dominant colour blue, next a white after applying a light coat of primer, then finally the red. The side was the same except started with the yellow and primer as required. Finally the tail tri-colour was just applied in order as seen in the photos

With the first mask reapplied a rattle pack off primer, high build used to lightly cover [tone down]  then the area for red was  applied and once dry the mask applied.

Particular attention was paid to the gaps that created by segmenting the decal, it is impossible to create a perfect profile match as they distort on application especially over rivets.

At this point, the Earth was applied, then Forest Green with the pattern marked out at the start using the diagrams above. All the outlines were marked using the Earth and the gun on its tightest pattern.

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It is just one big learning curve