Painting bombs and missiles

[jmatt]

There's got to be an easier way, yes? Please just tell me I made a mistake and never have to do this much masking again. That's about 2.5 hours right there and I'm not done with the AMRAAMs.

And what about JDAMS, where the guidance kit has holes where the bomb color peaks through? Has anyone done this before?



Btw, I put this in this section because I'm not sure where the general construction / paint section is.

[Cymru]

I use liquid mask for this type of work, this would of taken less than 20 mins!

[jmatt]

I use liquid mask for this type of work, this would of taken less than 20 mins!

I have some of the Bob Dively Liquid masking film... it never seems to remove cleanly. But moreover, how do you paint a perfectly straight line with liquid mask?

[Cymru]

Sorry, I didn't explain very well. Use 1mm/2mm masking tape for the hard edges then I paint the rest in Maskol, works a treat.

[Joe]

Do you need to prime the bombs/missiles before applying the base coat? And the Maskol comes off the model easily? Thanks for this topic! I'm about to paint missiles for the first time ever!

Joe

[jmatt]

Do you need to prime the bombs/missiles before applying the base coat? And the Maskol comes off the model easily? Thanks for this topic! I'm about to paint missiles for the first time ever!

Joe

I primed mine.

IMO, Maskol would just make it harder. Once the hard edge mask is down, masking off the rest with a larger piece of kabuki tape is easy and quick. But masking those hard edges is tedious and time consuming. I used an electronic caliper to measure the fins in mm so that there was no excess tape flopping around in the area I wanted to airbrush. Each mask was cut precisely the length of the fin where it attaches to the weapon body.

I just did my AMRAAMs tonight. Eight fins equals 16 hard edges since each side of it has to be masked. Add the nose cone (those circular edges require multiple small masks to account for the curvature) and it's like 20 tiny hard edges per missile.

After a little research and experimenting with three different colors, I decided that Tamiya's Khaki is the closest approximation to the body color of the MK82 or MK84.

I can't decide whether I am...

a) Good in that I strive to be precise or...
b) An idiot that chooses to do everything the hardest way imaginable

[Joe]

Don't be so hard on your self...we ALL have done something similar! After all, we build models and are therefore, perfectionists! Keep up the good work!!!

Joe

[jmatt]

Unmasked the bombs last night and they are almost flawless. Of course, I still have to paint the fins and figure out how to hand paint the JDAM strakes without touching the bomb color... but one minor miracle at a time.

[Paul]

Theres no easy way to do it, if you want them to look good your going to have to spend the time masking.

[chief5437]

If there's a lot of ordnance to do, I just do a few at a time. That way I don't get annoyed by doing repetitive tasks all in one night. Also, Google images of your particular bombs etc, in use they are rarely perfectly painted!

[Fridgy]

Just to quickly go off topic

How do you guys hold your missiles and bombs for painting?

I have the tamiya paint stand with the clips.

But when painting, say a 70s era aim-9 the call out is all white with a black seeker head.

I got around it by painting half of all of them then doing the second half the next day

Interested in other ideas to limit airbrush cleaning

[chief5437]

On bombs and the like that have locating holes, I just jam a cocktail stick in there, perfect. With aim's I usually drill the back end out anyway, as they're not normally a flush finish IRL. So a cocktail stick can go in there too. Another way is to paint an area that will be masked off (seeker head,fin etc) then mask it and hold it in self closing tweezers where the masking tape is.

[jmatt]

Theres no easy way to do it, if you want them to look good your going to have to spend the time masking.

Many thanks. I feel better knowing that there wasn't some trick or method I had overlooked.

[jmatt]

Just to quickly go off topic

How do you guys hold your missiles and bombs for painting?

Since some of my units had excess tape covering the larger areas front and rear, I simply had a rubber glove on my left hand and airbrushed each one individually. Since they had fins front and rear, I was able to just set them down on a piece of paper and the taped fins kept them lifted from the surface as they dried.

The JDAMs have no front fins. So I took a standard hardware-store, wooden paint stick/stirrer, attacked a loop of tape to one side, and dangled the bombs hanging off it (the masked rear section attacked to the tape). I then airbrushed all three at once and used two alligator clips to support the stick as the bombs dangled and dried.

Here's the result. Note that I will have to overpaint the front of the rear fins on the GBU units where they overlapped the bomb body. There was no way around that. I'm pretty happy with how they came out. Still have to paint the masked off areas.

[schweinhund227]

You can always take the easy way out....
Not as colourful but... maybe easier on you !

https://static.thisdayinaviation.com/wp ... d-bomb.jpg

Some Decal companies make the yellow bands and other missile or bombs markings as well...

Good luck with your project !

[Plopper]

I must be odd, I love masking!

[jmatt]

Some Decal companies make the yellow bands and other missile or bombs markings as well...

Good luck with your project !

These have the decal bands, too. That's next, after painting fins and strakes.

[jmatt]

I must be odd, I love masking!

I kinda like it too. Sanding and smoothing as well. What I don't like is taking 7 months to build a single model.

[Plopper]

I must be odd, I love masking!

I kinda like it too. Sanding and smoothing as well. What I don't like is taking 7 months to build a single model.

Hehe never got that far yet. About a month is the most I've ever taken to build a kit. I've taken a lot longer on a couple of the scratch built stuff I've done.

[jmatt]

If there's a lot of ordnance to do, I just do a few at a time. That way I don't get annoyed by doing repetitive tasks all in one night. Also, Google images of your particular bombs etc, in use they are rarely perfectly painted!

And they also seem to be painted differently from Google pic to pic. Some progress, little more painting and decals left to go.

[jmatt]

Painted, panel washed and decaled! Woot!



The bolt on sections (the strakes on the nose and main body) of the JDAMs are kinda sloppy for me. I was very frustrated that night and just rushed through them. They look fine at arm's length and will mostly be hidden on display anyway.

Dull Cote took the shine off the missile decals purdy good.