Hi Folk. I am trying to do some red cross on white stencils on my CMP ambulance body. I cut out of sticky lables the circles for the white background and fixed them in place. I then lightly sprayed several coats of white. When I removed them there was a 'rigge of paint around the edges.

Is there any way of useing stencils (or masking) that does not do this? Am I doing something wrong? Painting is not a very stong point for me but I do wish to get to the stage where I am able to do it as good as most of you!

Any tips hints methods etc would be welcome.

thanks in advance
Cliff

Hi Cliff,
I have the same problem too by using the "home made" stencil, the reason is the multicoats of paint on the stencil, I did the second try with only one thin coat by airbrushing then with the tiny brush, I painted by hand another coat inside the edge. Hope this helps.

MrRoo,
Just a little tip: don't let the paint fully dry before you pull the stencil off. Plus, just mist the paint on several times. It will keep the edges from bunching up and sticking to the stencil. If that does happen, run a new blade around the stencil and then remove it.
Ciao for now
Rob

Cliff:

White and yellow are the two toughest colors to paint, in my opinion. You probably inadvertantly built up the paint while trying to get proper coverage. You might have been better off to mist on some today, let it cure overnight, then mist on a little more -- repeat until it's good..

I use white a lot for the interiors of U.S. AFVs and have noticed that white seems to pool and puddle a lot quicker than other colors -- because I was trying to cover it all in one shot. Now I try to be a little more patient and it seems to work better applied in several layers over a few days.

thanks for your reply guys. I think you are right in the fact that I was impatient to get good cover quick. I will try to just mist it next time.

I tend to cheat when I've got white areas on a kit. I use white auto primer on the whole kit and then mask the areas that are to remain white.
It takes fewer coats of the next colour to cover the primer and so there is less chance of a ridge forming. If the white is to be heavily faded or weathered then another method is to paint the kit in the base colours and mask where the white is to be applied. Then drybrush the white on using a "scrubbing" action. As long as the surface underneath has a smooth finish it can work OK. I've had good results with this method on vehicles that are depicted having been "in the field" a good while.

good point about the weathering. Thank you very much I will try that next time