Painting insignia instead of decals?

[telepatu]

Hi!
May I ask advice from the wise? I currently building an older Revell F4F Wildcat. The decals looks pretty bad, so I thought I'll try painting them instead. Which order do you paint them? I'm thinking first painting the whole roundel with white and then adding the star and then spraying the blue color.

Br, Jani
 

[harv]

Sounds right to me. Good luck. They do look more "real".....harv

[DocRob]

Yup, first the white and then the blue. You need to be precise with the masking for the blue, not to have some unwanted white framing.
Your masks look a bit loose on the plastic, Be sure to make them adhere well, that no color might run under.

Cheers Rob 

[Spitfire]

Be careful airbrushing the white first, I did it on my P-39 and it peeped out of the edge, basically I had a blue and white sandwich with the white showing through, now I always make sure that I paint the blue first, mask it off and then paint the white.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[telepatu]

Thanks! I might try painting one thin layer with the blue grey / light gray to prevent the white going under the mask. I'll try now with white first and on the next model the other way around if this doesn't work.

Br, Jani

[Landlubber Mike]

 

 

 

I painted these on my F4F builds using Montex masks.  Also painted the chevrons and belly band, but used white line decals for the edges.  The order for me was white disc, blue background, then red center circle.  The masks didn't sit particularly tightly and I had some running of colors underneath which was annoying.  

Next time around, after placing the mask, I might shoot a thin coat of clear around the edges of the mask to help avoid colors going under the masks.  Anyone else do that?

[telepatu]

On 9/13/2021 at 5:51 PM, Landlubber Mike said:

Next time around, after placing the mask, I might shoot a thin coat of clear around the edges of the mask to help avoid colors going under the masks.  Anyone else do that?

Your models look stunning, great work!
Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely try the clear coat after masks.

Br, Jani

[krow113]

Yes the clear trick is well known and effective.

Also cutting the white mask slightly smaller than the blue mask will alleviate the dreaded white edge.

[GusMac]

Clear round the edges works well and liquid frisket over edges as you paint subsequent layers helps as well.