"painting Horsas" Topic

Any tips for painting large surfaces? I have 3 1/72 Horsa gliders and I've never painted anything so large…no airbrush I'm afraid.

Spray cans?

Spray cans and paper/cardboard camo templates would work.

Just paint the stripes with a brush, like they did with the real ones. No worries if they're not perfect, since I suspect the real ones weren't, either.

I once used cardboard stencils cut into the shapes of the cammo them put blutac under them to raise them from the surface so when I was finished spraying them I got a softer edge where the cammo colours came together.

Much obliged!

Most of the underside and fuselage was black so a can of matt black does the majority of the work if you go into a car parts shop buy some car detail tape 'white' to scale for the stripes rest is old decals from the model shops 'used' section which normally has one Brit roundals if not circle templates with colours dabbed on also look in the scrapping section of the local craft or $-£ store for lettering/numbers.
Cheers hope this helps

Sadly I'm more than 300 miles from a model shop, so the 'used' section is n't too useful for me!

Any tips for painting large surfaces? I've never painted anything so large

Use a bigger brush.

Bigger brush..clearly the answer!

RAF camo edges were pretty sharp so brush work is okay, apply future floor polish (yes really) after you paint to areas that you will decal (this gets rid of silvering). Then spray the entire thing with a good matte clear, it may take several coats but it minimizes brush marks and will also cover the future. The idea of the future is that decals adhere better and without silvering to a glossy finish. Future is the kind that most modellers use, I don't know if others will work, I never tried them.

airbrush is the answer for you..even if you don't have one link

As someone who now stays away from spray cans – a larger brush works for me. Something in the region of 6mm (or 1/4 inch) is quite good for the bigger projects as it still gives quite a bit of control.

For acrylic I now have a Vallejo bottle with a mix of 80% water and 20% flow improver. I have a couple of drops of that to the side and introduce just a BIT of it to the paint, which combined with the 6mm brush really gives fast and even cover.

Pay someone else to do it.

Paying someone else to do it is a very attractive option, but I dread to think of the price…unless you know anyone who fancies the project?

I bought 3 1/72 scale Horsas from BB Wargames and had then paint them for me a few years back. I was pleased with the result and would show you a picture if they weren't in a box buried somewhere deep in the garage……

Wish I'd thought of that. I've had stuff from them before and it's always been good value.

Spray black.
Buy a really big squirrel hair brush.
Use it at an acute angle so you paint with the side rather than tip.
And a soft ish one inch house brush.
Whack on a darkish layer layer with the house brush.
Layer on thin lighter layers on the highlights.
The first layer you can actually do with the house brush lightly loaded. Wipe most of your paint off first tho on something absorbent.
Then go at it with the squirrel.
You want several, progressively smaller and lighter.
Add some extender to your paint and soften any edges you don't like the look of by scrubbing lightly with a brush wet with straight water. Another brush is good here.
Pick out the edges lighter again.

As ever, the collective efforts of TMP have given me lots to think about…much obliged to everyone.

There is a youtube video for painting the FOW Open Fire StuG III. It harkens to a guide I seem to recall from "Dirty Jon(?)" Anyway, the colors would not be correct but the painting technique would be similar.

YouTube link

Buy an airbrush . . . you'll be glad you did. You can use it for so many things, buildings too, weathering, etc. You'll find all sorts of uses.

For quality airbrush an Iwata HP-CS Eclipse – look at TCP Global as a source. And the Badger RK-1 Krome! Both highly recommended by pros who use and teach airbrushing!

Ended up using spray cans from the auto shop and a lot of matt varnish; worked surprisingly well for a klutz like me. Thanks for all the advice guys.

Spray cans throw too much paint, especially something from an automotive source. Why buy paint there when every Hobby shop carries specific paints for modeling?!? Model paints spray finer and also come in spray cans, whereas model paints don't block up fine details like other household paints do. Actually for "priming" your model, the best and finest particulate paint is Floquil for model railroads. I use that as a primer since it has complete coverage and lays down at almost "scale" thickness when used with an airbrush.

I'm about 250 miles from a hobby shop – and not even a good one at that, so I'm probably more like 400 miles from one with a good range of such things. I would order stuff to be delivered, but the Royal Mail (and other parcel companies which are not as reliable) won't take parcels with spray paint – not altogether unreasonable since so much of our mail comes by plane. All he same, I got a half-decent result, which with my level of ability is as much as I could hope for anyway.

Just curious, do you live on an island with an interesting name? Can't imagine who else would have to fly in mail.

Yup; even by distant Scottish islands standards I suppose we are 'out in the sticks'..or we would be if there were more trees.

@ uglyfatbloke; Where the heck are you? St. Kilda?

He's on Craggy Island…

Craggy Island is positively cosmopolitan.