Monday, August 3, 2015

AVI Nike Tomahawk Build Part 22, Tomahawk Nose Cone Paint Masks

Right above the Bakelite brown band is a thin cream stripe.
Rather than masking it, make a decal!

TIP: You can spray a clear decal sheet with any color. Don't run it through your printer, just spray the sheet with color paint!

I had an old can of WalMart cheap paint in a cream color.
Behind the can is the sheet of decal paper, just a 1/4" wide band of decal paper is exposed over the masking tape.

After spraying and removal of the tape I had a band of cream ready for transfer. No clear coat is needed, the color coat seals the paper.

Thin strips of the the cream "decal" were cut with a knife and straightedge.
The inset picture shows the cream band right above the brown.
It was easy to line up the cream decal. The lower edge of the cream decal sits right on the paint ridge of the brown paint.

4 comments:

  1. I can't believe I never thought of doing this. It's BRILLIANT!!!!

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    1. Hi Bill,
      It works great! Not my idea, I read about it somewhere.
      Sometimes I've used it to true up a bad mask line. Carefully sand down the paint mask ridge a bit (just knock off the ridge) then apply the decal.
      This works best with black, you could never match up other colors.

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  2. I did this several years ago with my 60's themed rocket Groovy Man. I printed the shapes on the back of the decal sheet (reversed, of course), painted the front side, then cut them out (after the paint was dry, of course) and applied them to the rocket. Worked great!

    For an encore, I'm planning to put stars on my Quest America using a punch intended for scrapbooking. Praise to Hobby Lobby for the clearance deals!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Chris,
      I checked out your Groovy Man rocket on your New Century website. It looks great!
      I like the idea of the star punch. I've used my rotary punch for small dots off a vinyl sheet. They went on the raised "guns" on the Xarconian Cruiser.

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