Epap: repaint advise needed, please

[aferguson]

Epap, i'm hoping you can offer some advice from your considerable experience repainting diecasts.... i'd like to repaint the Ixo Do-335. I don't have and don't feel like buying replacement decals for it. I found a forum thread on the net where a chap has repainted his Ixo 335 but left he original markings untouched....ie he repainted AROUND the markings.

His final job looks pretty good and i would be happy with a result like that. Is there a trick to doing this or is it just a fine brush and a very fine steady hand?


http://forums.diecast-aviation.eu/showt ... hp?t=16584

[Epap]

Before commenting on your intended project, AF, here's a picture of my Atlas DO-335 repaint. As you can see, it's got small lettering in various places, which I simulated as you can't read what the words say anyway. Also, the IXO insignias and markings tend to be oversized; my repaint uses smaller markings:

[Epap]

Now, to your question. If I wasn't going to replace the markings on an IXO DO-335, I'd certainly paint around them, carefully, using a thin, short handled liner brush. I'd do the areas immediately around the markings first. As for paint, I'd go with enamel as it dries slower. This means that if you make a mistake, you have time to correct it, either by taking another small and thin headed brush, dipping it in thinner and carefully wiping off the errant paint----or, if it's a big mistake, by taking a larger brush, dipping it in thinner and wiping the whole mess away before starting over. If you use fast drying acrylics, it is very difficult to make such corrections without smudging up the whole area. Finally, it is very important to clean off any of that oily coating one frequently finds on IXO models before painting as it's certain to have a bad effect on your paint.

I should mention that you shouldn't worry if your hand slips while painting around the crosses or lettering. If you cover up a small part of a swastika or a number with enamel paint. Just wait a few minutes so the paint begins to harden, then take a liner brush, dipped lightly in thinner, and re-outline the area's markings, in the process getting rid of the small over-spill. This sometimes leaves a slight "mist" of diluted paint which must be carefully wiped away with a dry brush or, sometimes, a finger swipe.

What you are going to attempt is pretty tricky, AF. Were it I, I'd get some of the standard Luftwaffe white cross and swastika outline sheets plus a standard numbers sheet----maybe a USAAF WW2 sheet that has rounded numbers that look like the German ones, and do the model the conventional way. This will allow you to spray paint, rather than brush----if you are so inclined.

[cnq]

Before commenting on your intended project, AF, here's a picture of my Atlas DO-335 repaint. As you can see, it's got small lettering in various places, which I simulated as you can't read what the words say anyway. Also, the IXO insignias and markings tend to be oversized; my repaint uses smaller markings:

Beautiful repaint 335.

[aferguson]

hm....thanks for the advice Epap. I didn't realize that Atlas made a Do-335 as well. The Ixo's are hard to find but the Atlas ones appear to be near impossible to find. I guess i'm just being lazy in not wanting to fully repaint and re-decal the model. Plus i hate contending with the silvering on the late war German crosses......there's always a trace of silvering no matter how hard i try.

[Epap]

hm....thanks for the advice Epap. I didn't realize that Atlas made a Do-335 as well. The Ixo's are hard to find but the Atlas ones appear to be near impossible to find. I guess i'm just being lazy in not wanting to fully repaint and re-decal the model. Plus i hate contending with the silvering on the late war German crosses......there's always a trace of silvering no matter how hard i try.

A tip on silvering. I assume that you give the area where the decal is to go a coat of Future or some other glossy substance before application. I usually make sure that I have at least a semi gloss finish. Then, after the decal is set----using Micro Sol or another agent that lets it settle down into a close fit ------I brush the decal and adjacent area with some water -diluted Future to seal the marking in. This extra step seems to help a lot with the silvering. Finally, I spray with Dullcoat.

I assume that Oxford will eventually release its version of the DO-335, using the same tooling it employed to make the Atlas model.

[Dauntless]

I just got an IXO Do-335 on ebay a couple days ago finally. I had been waiting and waiting for a reasonably priced one.

I thought about the same thing doing a partial repaint only spraying it with an airbrush. I was trying to think of a way to only spray the brown areas a different green as I wouldn't have to mask the canopy and leave that the green thats on the rest of it.

Use fine line masking tape to at least mask the German crosses and try to save them. But... then I thought about those horrid black lines all over the plane that need to be taken care of and now have to rethink the whole thing.

The colors are awful on it, it does need a repaint.

Nice job on that Epap.