Brush painting small, irregularly shaped details?

[penguinpc]

I am working a 1/2500 model of the Enterprise C. Now that I have done the base coat, I need to paint a few details. I attempted to do so with a very tiny brush, but try as I might, it's hard for me to stay in the "lines".

You can see my work at the link below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alvis_susan/9251619768/

Masking such small curved pieces seems like an impossibility, but maybe I should give it a try.

Ignore my other mistakes caused by my lack of patience.

Any suggestions on masking these details or how to paint them without them looking messy?

Thank you.

[Joseph C. Brown]

Here are two possible approaches:

1) Find good quality masking tape, like Tamiya tape or Frog tape:
http://frogtape.com/index.php/products
This should allow you to mask right up to the edges of the detail areas. Burnish it down completely! Then paint the detail areas.


2) Strip the existing paint.

Then, paint each detail area as you wish, and ignore any 'wandering-brush' messy edges.

Then (use the appropriate tape) mask off each of your detail painted areas.

Then apply the base color.

Then remove the masking from the detail areas.

I'm sure other folks will chime in with more options.

[Ramsayman]

I just use a "very fine" brush (sometimes even one bristle) and a light that I have with a magnifyer that looks like this!

It takes ALOT of patience. But that lamp makes it significantly easier!

[kenlilly106]

What I've done before is to take a new knife blade and lightly trace a path around the area to be painted, you don't need to press hard, the weight of the knife will make a slightly raised line in the paint, when you paint use the brush combined with the surface tension of the paint to flow the paint along this line, giving you a straight edge.

Ken

[Targallian]

You could also try using Parafilm to mask it. It's very thin and flexible and can be wrapped around the area. I find it works pretty well on irregularly shaped areas.

[irishtrek]

When masking curved areas use a more narrow tape instead of the 1" wide masking tape, or just simply trim the wider tape into narrow strips.

[Kylwell]

Small brush, good lighting, magnifying visor. Do a basic coat, staying within the lines even if it means leaving a rough edge. Let dry then come in with a touch up coat to fix the lines, wee little bit @ a time. This may take more than one touch up session.