# technique for painting stripes on bombs?



## mgh (Jun 6, 2011)

Hello All,

Working on a TBF Avenger. I am wanting to paint the yellow stripes on the ordinance, but having no luck figuring out how to attack it. Tried masking, but could not get in tight enough around the bomb rack. This kit came with a decal for the stripes, but it fell to pieces (as did the seat belt decals).

Free-handing it for me is a complete joke

Any suggestions?

Thanks


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Usually I would paint the stripe area, mask it with thin slivers of Tamiya tape, then paint the overall bomb color.

OR use strips of colored decal film cut with a knife and ruler.

Seat Belt decals in kits are not supposed to be soaked off and applied as a decal... you cut them out and glue them in so it looks like you have a cloth belt. Never happy with the look so I buy photo-etch belts myself.


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## SteveR (Aug 7, 2005)

One clever wag on this site suggested placing the ordinance in a Dremel chuck and holding a brush to it as it rotated. I suppose a foot pedal would be handy.


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## s.moe (Jul 18, 2011)

hey mgh....s.moe,here....I do it the same way djnick66 does his....Paint stripe color first....wait till DRY, cut tape to desired width and apply, then paint the bomb color and I remove the tape before paint is completely dry, to keep from lifting the edges of paint....Something else you might try instead of tape( IF you can get them),use tiny rubber bands,like the ones used for braces,(I watched a friend of mine's doing this technique and it worked pretty good on his bombs.....Just a thought....Good luck....s.moe........out.


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## mgh (Jun 6, 2011)

Hey thanks for the help!

I will try painting the stripe color first, then masking. I think the rubber band would be a neat thing to try out if I could find some.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

mgh said:


> Hey thanks for the help!
> 
> I will try painting the stripe color first, then masking. I think the rubber band would be a neat thing to try out if I could find some.


small O rings from the hardware store will work

If you look at real bombs, especially World War II-Vietnam era the paint jobs are not so neat either.

One thing often missing is the very rough texture to the OD paint on US bombs... they are not smooth.


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## SteveR (Aug 7, 2005)

Using rubber bands is a great idea.


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## mgh (Jun 6, 2011)

I used strips of tape to mask. I have not been to the hardware store to see if there were O-rings small enough to work, or tried to hunt up rubber bands, though I think that would be a great simple way to do it.

My results were satisfactory, wouldn't win any awards, but came out OK.

Thanks for the help!


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## s.moe (Jul 18, 2011)

Hey mgh...s.moe,here....I'm glad to here your bomb stripes turned out ok for you, djnick66 really hit the nail on the head about WW II / Vietnam era paint on ordnance, Most of the stripes/lettering were just painted on by hand or with stencils..Didn't matter what they looked like, Just as long as they got the job done...Good luck with the rest of your build....show some pic's when it's done......s.moe......out.


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