Masking Issues

[Blackironindustries]

Hello,

I am currently painting 6 Dark Eldar Venoms from Games Workshop and have encounter a little problem with masking when under coating and air brushing. If you don’t know what the model is please see the link - http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat540001a&prodId=prod1230008a

The pilot has been constructed and painted but I have just realised that when the upper and lower hull are put together, with the pilot in the middle there is nowhere to attach masking tape and undercoating and air brushing separate pieces would be more than a pain.

Anyone got any tips on how to mask off the pilot and cockpit with attaching tape to the hull?

Thanks for reading,

Rob

 

[Bloodhowl]

Not sure I understand your dilemma. The picture you linked shows the cockpit is sealed with a canopy. Mask over the canopy. That should prevent the pilot and cockpit from being exposed to the spray.

When building aircraft, usually the cockpits are painted separately as once they are installed into the fuselage they are difficult to get at. Depending on type of cockpit, here are two options:

if the cockpit sits below the lip of the fuse (closed cockpit without an opening/closing canopy that is not integral to the fuse P-51A/B/C vs P-51D type canopies) or is going to be an open cockpit (like a WWI aircraft) you can stuff paper towel/tissue into the cockpit and tape over it. Spray the model, then touch up any areas that were covered with tape with a brush.

If it's a closed cockpit, you can glue the canopy in place with pva, mask off the canopy, then spray. The PVA is weak enough that if the canopy is designed to open, you can use a knife blade to pry it open after the paint is dry.

 

[me_in_japan]

with the venom you really have to paint the upper and lower hull separately and then glue upper, lower and pilot into place at the end. Its the same for all regular eldar vehicles, as well as the dark eldar venom. TBH, in my experience its better to not stick things together that you plan to airbrush. It leads to far more problems than it solves. Prep, paint, assemble, in that order. Thats the ticket

*edit* why is airbrushing separate pieces a pain?

@bloodhowl - theres also a half canopy that comes with it - he may have used that, assuming it is already assembled.

 

[Bloodhowl]

@bloodhowl - theres also a half canopy that comes with it - he may have used that, assuming it is already assembled.

Aaaaahhhhhhhhh ok. Wasn't evident from the picture he linked there was a half canopy.

It's on my list of things to get, but I have not built the venom. I defer to your experience with it MiJ. :smile:

 

[me_in_japan]

venoms are great lovely models, and they come with wych hangers-on, which you can then chop up and put on your raiders full of wyches (bit of conversion required.) That, and if you fill em full of trueborn it makes most armies wee themselves in fear I mean, seriously, 33 poison shots a turn! Oooooh, they dont call it the dakkavenom for nothing [Dr. Evil pinky-to-mouth]Mwahahahahahahaaaaa[/Dr. Evil pinky-to-mouth]

 

[airhead]

mask with post it notes?
Low tack and cheap.
Seal the post-its with plain scotch tape so nothing blows through.

 

[Einion]

I'm not certain I know exactly what you're asking here but one standard way to mask off a cockpit (as well as wheel wells and similar) is to use damp tissue which you then let dry before spraying. The edges can be taken care of with tape if necessary.

Einion

 

[Blackironindustries]

Sorry people should really have said the canopy isnt stuck on and I would do that as one of the last things.

Masking off the pilot would be hard using tape, in my opinion, and blue/white tack seems to leave a bit of a greasy residue on the model. I don't want to mask and spray the pieces seperatly as I want to get these bad boys on the table top as soon as I can.

I think that once again Einion has come up with the solution, I was trying dry tissue and it wasnt going so well adding good old H2O might solve that.

Oh yeah and the reason I airbrush is all your fault Einion, the advice you gave me a while ago about the whole process has brought it as one of my stable painting processes. I would just like to say thank you. :beerwave:

Oh and of course thatnk you all for your input you all rock! :guitar:

 

[RuneBrush]

If you airbrush the area you want to mask with varnish, you can use white tack without it leaving any greasy residue. I've done this on red and brown colours as I find that finger grease was marking the paint, however a quick spray with D&R matte varnish and this goes away, plus you can then paint over the top again without any problems.

 

[cyberakuma]

If the wet tissue doesn't work jammydog do 1mm thick masking tape either in normal paper type or low tack variety(blue in colour) this and some small pieces of newspaper should sort your problem and at £3 for 25m it may not be dirt cheap but it comes in handy for painting a lot of crisp details pinstriping go faster stripes edging etc when you haven't got a steady free hand i've not used it for dotting eyes yet but i can see it makng it easier

 

[Einion]

Oh yeah and the reason I airbrush is all your fault Einion, the advice you gave me a while ago about the whole process has brought it as one of my stable painting processes. I would just like to say thank you. :beerwave:

That's the kind of thing I don't mind being blamed for :highfive:

Einion