SPA Modeler

speedgraflex wrote:

what Kenny said - it's a cracking drawing.

Progress!

Any progress is good progress!

Thanks so much, Carlos. I am actually at the plunge point to hand paint the swirls or whatever those are called. Do I make a full mask or partial mask? When I looked at the decals the “tip” where the spiral (There! That’s the word!) begins at the center of the hub then swirls outward.

For the me group build I’m in with an old Revell G model. It has rhe spiral on the spinner. I’d be most happy to email you a copy of the decal sheet. Give you something to work from...

speedgraflex wrote:Thanks so much, Carlos. I am actually at the plunge point to hand paint the swirls or whatever those are called. Do I make a full mask or partial mask? When I looked at the decals the “tip” where the spiral (There! That’s the word!) begins at the center of the hub then swirls outward.

I’ve never painted the swirl stripe, at least not as an adult. And the ones I did as a youngster, hand painted, were pretty bad. I’ve only done them by decal. And those are a bit of a challenge to place just right due to the length of the decal and the compound curves of a spinner.



If I were to paint it, I’d do the White first, mask it off, then paint the darker color.

Stikpusher wrote: I’ve never painted the swirl stripe, at least not as an adult. And the ones I did as a youngster, hand painted, were pretty bad. I’ve only done them by decal. And those are a bit of a challenge to place just right due to the length of the decal and the compound curves of a spinner.



If I were to paint it, I’d do the White first, mask it off, then paint the darker color.

Carlos! That looks great. That is exactly what the shape should be but I do not have that as a decal. It looks more like a tadpole, with a round head on it.

Spinner spirals are tricky. There are different types of spirals on different types of spinners. I think the shape of the 410/109 spinners are one of the toughest to get a good spiral on. The 190 spinners are little bit easier in my opinion.

I've seen tutorials of using thin strips of tape to make a mask but I don't like how those spirals look. I usually use decals as a template to cut my own masks but cutting them can be a challenge. I find it difficult to cut the compound curves of a spiral mask even with a swivel blade and have all sorts of trouble in 1/32 and 1/48 so I imagine it might be tough in 1/72.

On my 1/32 G-10, I used the kit decal as a template to cut a spiral mask.


But you can see how the mask didn't want to sit down properly on the spinner.


So the resulting spiral was messy. But I used that as a base and performed tedious corrective masking around the spiral to clean it up.


I was happy with the results but it took a lot of work and I don't know if this is a reasonable work plan for a 1/72 spinner.



I think I would try the decal and lots of decal solution first. If that didn't work, I'd be forced to paint it.

Ooh... that does look a bit basic.