I just painted the dark green camo striping over the dark yellow base on my Tiger I. It looks nice, but there was quite a bit of a fine misty overspray along the edges of the patterns. Does anyone know a good way to clean up the edges of the lines to make a sharper edge? I really dont want to repaint the whole kit!

BTW I am a newbie to the board, just found the site and its fantastic.

this is just an idea. Let the paint dry properly then mask off a bit into the green camo stripe. then mist the edge again with yellow the tape should stop too much overspray from the green but leave you with a soft edge camo

I'm also building a Tiger I, but I think (from what I’ve seen and heard/read) they where sprayed in its camo pattern. At least the later versions which I presume that you are building.

I am going to try to have very diffuse border between the yellow and green.

Are you using a can or an airbrush? If a can, follow Cliff's advice above. If you're using a good airbrush, go back withthe yellow and experiment in a piece of scrap until you get a fine line. Then go in an retouch the excess overspray. What you've just experienced is not at all uncommon.

Hi Pugilist,
Yep I found this site back in September, now I can't keep away, it is without doubt the best site of its kind. Welcome and enjoy, everyone is nice and friendly. :-)
Now I build WWII aircraft but I do know a little bit about spraying camouflage (check out my selected link page). It sounds like 1 or more of the veriables when you sprayed isn't quite right, i.e. paint thining ratio, air pressure or a million and one other possibilities and without knowing your exact set up it's difficult to say. However it's a fair bet that your paint was to thick and your air pressure to high or to low and you have compensated by allowing to much air to flow (by backing off your needle). So there are lots that you can do wrong. When I am free hand spraying camouflage I would expect to have to get the airbrush close to the surface, as close as 5mm in places, and be moving slowly, for control. To achieve this you require thin paint and low pressure. Too thin paint or pressure to high and you get spiders legs (or millipedes), to much air and you get tinted thinner everywhere. Paint to thick and you will get overspray (because you will have to use to high pressure).What you need to achieve is a nice steady flow at low pressure, because the paint is thin it wont cover very well. This is a good thing, as it allows you to do some nice affects, but it does mean that you will have to go over the area several times to get the depth of coverage that you want. If you do get slight overspray then do as AJLaFleche says, but if the overspray is large and you do the same again with the yellow then you will be back to square 1. This all depends on having a decent airbrush.
Another way to achieve the aim would be reverse masking. Spray the green areas first, don't worry about overspray, mask off using worms of Blue Tack, then spray the dark yellow. This would achieve cliff's solotiion of masking the green and re-spraying the dark yellow, Blue Tack would be easier and quicker to apply.
I hope I haven't baffled you with science LOL :-) If anything is not clear, then come back with how you sprayed the green, type of paint, thinning ratio, air pressure etc and we will try again.
Hope this helps
Mal

Thanks for the great replies guys! I went back today and toyed with the dark yellow on an old panzer II I had laying around until I got the correct ratio. I went back and very carefully tried to cover up the dark green overspray and it went pretty nicely.
I let it dry for about an hour and checked it out, it looks better but now some varied yellow overspray in places. The rest of this kit looks superb, and I am pretty frustrated now. I use a Paasche D500 compressor, and a Crescendo double-action airbrush. I usually thin to the consistency of milk (the old rule of thumb), and vary the pressure for the work I am doing.
Any other ideas guys? Thanks again!

I've been using an airbrush for a thousand years and every time I use it I expect things to be different. Thats because of the million and one variables, including ambiant temperature. I liken it to cutting with a laser (something I used to do) You could work long and hard to get the cut just right, then come back a day later and the same parameters weren't always right. Just needed a little tweaking. It's because of the fact that there are so many veriables. For close quarter detail airbrushing the consistancy of milk is probably to thick, but it depends on what paint you are using aswell. When detailing, if I am using Lifecolor acrylics then I would thin the paint 70-30 with destilled water and windscreen washer fluid and a few drops of acrylic retarder. The thinning ratio might be as high as 80-20, but I don't measure it, what counts is how it sprays. If I was detailing with Humbrol enamels I would expect (expect) to have to thin with cellulose thinner (be careful). When detailing with Xtracolour, which are gloss and therefor a finer pigment, I use their recomended thinner, white spirit, and thin about 60-40. All this depends on those veriables. Don't get me wrong, most times I can go into my spray booth mix the paint test spray and I'm off. Sometimes though one of those variables is out of line and I can spend afrustrating time trying to get it right. I try and eliminate the ambiant temperature by heating the paint, by putting it into a cup of hot water, while getting my brush ready. Careful if you do that, the build up of pressure can send the lid flying, followed by the paint. This has only ever happened to me once, with Revell paints (treat the same as Humbrol).
I would spend some time trying out some wild paint ratios differant thinners and air pressures, see what you get. When you can spray a 1/8" line 5mm from the surface with no overspray and no millipedes, you are there. Practice, practice, practice. Above all have fun.
:-)
It aint as bad as I may have made it sound, for detailing just get rid of that rule of thumb :-)
Mal