Miracle Paint Masks

Please note: 1. I have stopped producing paint masks to order. 2. However, if I have a particular mask set on file I will cut it for you. 3. No, I cannot post a list of what I have, there are far too many. 4. So if you would like me to consider cutting you a set of masks the easiest way is to ask, and to be very precise on what it is you want. Then I can say yes or no!... 5. Very good causes will often be accommodated. 6. And if I do say yes then please, please, please just do as I ask as I will drop it if you don't!
Sorry if that sounds a bit harsh but one of the reasons that I gave it up was that too many customers would not do as I requested, not even simple things like, "Write your name and address as you would write an envelope and include your country of origin" :(
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I finished the Hesegawa 1/32 Ki-61. Adding the kill markings and exhaust and cordite staining.
This has been an enjoyable build :)

After much procrastinating I have finally painted the mottled camouflage on my Hasegawa 1/32 Ki-61.
I painted the wings in one sitting, which took me about and hour and the fuselage was completed today after another hour. I masked out the cheat lines and the yellow leading edges. I used Colourcoats Kawasaki army green. I had given the NMF a pin wash of burnt umber oil paint and I wondered how I would give the mottle a wash. But after painting I don't reckon that it needs it? ...If I give the upper surfaces a gloss coat to enable the wash i would then, ideally, need to somehow matt coat just the mottle and that would not really be possible; well not with any great ease anyway. So I plan on just giving the tail and yellow leading edges a coat of matt varnish and not worry about the mottle. Like I say I think it looks OK without a wash or matt coat.
So just the prop to paint and a few decals and we are good to go for final assembly :) Oh I almost forgot there is the mask for the kill marks, they need painting but yep that's all :) Oh and I need to paint the wheels! But that will be it :)
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The final paint application of the markings on my Revell 1/32 P-51, the black shadow shading on the LOU IV script.
This was not at all a difficult mask, weed, apply transfer tape, transfer to the model and position it accurately, remove the transfer tape burnish down the mask, spray black, wait until dry, remove all masking.............TA DA! :D
Well it wasn't difficult at all, weeding the tiny triangle in the upper right corner of the IV, took some time and you really can't... see the black there, unless you look really closely but it's there. The issue, if there really was one? Was that this was the final piece in this puzzle and if anything went wrong (what could go wrong?) then the whole effect would be ruined.
I'm pretty chuffed at the way it turned out, finally have this scheme done :) Now if only I could crack the masks for the checkers on the Big Beautiful Doll scheme I would be really happy but that is an ongoing saga and I'm going to paint my Tamiya P-51 in a different scheme, I think, just so I can get around to building it :)
Anyway, thanks for watching, my next post on this will be the photos of the completed model and hopefully before the 4th September as I have to go up north then.
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The painting of my Revell 1/32 P-51 LOU IV will be completed tomorrow! The ATHLENE script on the starboard nose is complete and the LOU IV script now just needs the black shadow shading added and it will be done.
After letting the white paint dry on the background mask for the ATHLENE script the white mask is carefully removed. The positioning box (PB) is left in place to receive the next max, the black script and outline. I weeded the outline then started on the script all ...was going very well; none of the letters, apart from the “A” have internal floating parts. When I got to the “A” and even though I was careful the internal triangle was pulled up! So doing it again, on another mask; remember that there are 4, so no sweat, and this time I left the “A” unweeded. I Applied the Transfer tape (TT) and cut a piece of backing paper as a handle and transferred the mask to the model. The crucial part now is to ensure that the second mask is positioned exactly within the PB. It is a real take your time moment and as the mask fits exactly into the PB you can sometimes think that it might be too big. That would simply mean that it is wrongly positioned. With the left end seemingly positioned correctly I removed the handle but doing so nudged the mask, so it was off. No problem though I manipulated it using my pointy tweezers and I could tell that it was correctly positioned when running the back of the point of my tweezers over the joint there wasn’t a bump. That meant that the 2 edges were butting up accurately, and the same was true all around the mask/PB borders. I double checked by looking at it through my mag light and the thin black edge did looked nice and even. It is drawn to outline the white, not to sit on top because doing so may give a thin white edge. A very, very thin white edge but it would have been there. Anyway the only real way to tell would be after painting and unmasking and I was confident that all was good, judge for yourself. The black used was MR.Paint “Nato Black”.
The red of the LOU IV was as simple as can be; I masked out the yellow chevrons, using my yellow Washi tape and painted it red. I also created a mask for the step marking on the port flap and painted that at the same time. I was going to also create masks for the fuel fillers but the decals show writing on them so I didn’t!
I will be painting the black of the LOU IV script tomorrow and that, apart from a gloss coat on these and the olive drab areas will be that for the painting.
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My Revell 1/32 P-51 LOU IV is stretching for the finish line. I’m hoping to have it ready for the Cambourne show on the 8th September but I am useless at deadlines, modelling deadlines that is, I’m always early for everything else. I’m also hoping to have my Ki-61 finished as well but that’s for another show and tell!
The last update showed the yellow painted on the nose, some, on my MPM page suggested that yellow is difficult to paint, and it wasn’t. With the yellow nose do...
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My Revell 1/32 P-51 has a yellow nose. I applied a gloss varnish coat, Allclad II Aqua gloss, last night and unmasked this morning :) Now for the LOU IV & ATHLENE artwork :)

My 1/32 Revell P-51 deserves some colour. A bit of light easy masking and a nice splash of yellow, using MR.Colour RAF Marking yellow :)

Starting this build of my 1/32 scale Revell P-51 Mustang I was under no illusions of how very likely it would be that paint would be lifted off the codes or S&B when the masking was finally removed, over a NMF. I took all of the precautions that I could by carefully de-tacking those masks that were going to be repositioned back on the painted markings. But they couldn’t be too heavily de-tacked otherwise they could lift. That was especially so with the codes near and forward ...of the S&B because they sit over the wing route fairing. I also had the dilemma of whether to gloss coat the markings as I went because doing so would cause the masking to adhere better! But if I didn’t do it at the point where the painting was done but the surrounding mask wasn’t removed it would be difficult to varnish the markings without getting varnish on the NMF. The varnish is necessary so that a wash can be applied (not necessary on an Allclad finish). So I gloss coated the markings. Doing so does not stop the paint being lifted; it actually makes it more likely. The paint lifts because it isn’t adhering to the smooth surface of the Allclad (or a greasy surface), the gloss varnish makes the surface to be masked smoother and therefore the masking adheres better and therefore it has more bite!
So after all of the effort to paint this model to the point that all of the current masking could be removed you may imagine that I was on tenterhooks as I proceeded. The first mask to be removed was the “2” on the starboard side. Just getting my pointy tweezers under an edge was a little traumatic as if dug into the pint, even a little, and this could start the paint lifting. Having lifted an edge I had to be conscious to keep the mask close over itself and pull gently. At any time I half expected to have paint start to lift. But no, it was fine; in fact it went really well. I had to not get carried away because if I just started ripping off the masking it would all end in disaster. The unmasking is always the best part and it is what makes you want to continue painting on markings. Once you have experienced it decals just don’t cut it anymore. I now literally hate the decaling process! So avoid it whenever I can.
I am pleased to say that I kept calm and carefully unmasked each of the markings and no paint at all lifted. So I am one happy Sapper.
Now it is on to what is probably the best part, the yellow nose and the LOU IV and ATHLENE scripts. I’m not sure that I will need you to wish me “luck” as I’m on a bit of a high. But this isn’t over yet and the deadline is looming. I’m going in!
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I have finally got around to painting the Olive Drab on the upper surfaces of my 1/32 Revell P-51. I debated long and hard how I wanted to replicate the upper surfaces over painting. All of the masking and over masking of the markings were leading up to this. But the dilemma was do I go with the convention that the D-Day stripes, were over painted in Olive Drab (or was it RAF Dark Green) then, at what must be have been a later date, the rest of the upper wings and the upper f...uselage was over painted, in Dark Green (or was it Olive Drab?). Photos definitely show a lighter colour of paint over the Invasion stripes. But it is impossible to know if Olive Drab or Dark green was used and both are possible but which is the most likely? Ever since I first wanted to produce this scheme I always figured that all of the upper surfaces were painted at the same time, because, to me, that is what made sense. The demarcation of the lighter and darker colour on the wings is pretty neat. Why would you mask off the already painted area to paint a similar colour? Yes, it could be a neat freehand job but would you bother getting it so neat? The actual colours and method can be debated as much as you want and feel the need to do so. I decided that it was all done at the same time and the difference that can be seen was because the underlying D-Day stripes change the look in a different way to what the silver of the wings does, that was my theory anyway.
The only way that I could test my theory was to actually paint a model and you will see, I hope, that the photos show that there is a little credence in this theory.
I used MR. Paint Olive Drab (it’s a USAF aircraft) and built up the paint very gradually. When I thought that there wasn’t quite enough coverage over the D-Day stripes I stopped. This is because while the paint is wet it is more translucent. Coming back to it when the paint had dried it was clear that I had stopped just at the right time! Today I masked off the line of the outer D-Day stripe and applied more paint to the Outer wings, because the paint in some areas there needed a few more passes. I’m not suggesting that this was done on the real aircraft! You will also notice that the black stripes on the tail have also been over painted in a similar way.
So I am pleased that I have proved, to myself that my theory is at least possible but I am in no way advocating my method as the definitive way to paint this scheme.
The next part will be the most nerve wracking in this whole painting bonanza, unmasking all of the markings! If the masks all lift off cleanly, without lifting any of the paint off the NMF that will be a great bonus, if any paint lifts that will be the end of this build! Wish me luck for tomorrow.
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Before removing the last of the masking to reveal the D-Day stripes on my Revell 1/32 P-51 LOU IV I gave the exposed paint a coat of gloss varnish (Allclad II Aqua Gloss). The upper surface ones don't technically need it, as the upper surfaces will have a Olive Drab applied. I'll talk more about this in the next update. So all masking removed and I'm pleased with how this turned out but I'd give myself 8/10, or less. Mainly because of how I spent far too long resolving the s...tripes on the flaps. If they were glued on I could have still masked the NMF area when they are open, although it would have been more difficult it would have saved me a day(ish). Also there are a couple of areas where there is a little black over spray, that's just slack on my part but it is on the upper surfaces and only a very small amount, so it will be covered!
Next update will be painting the OD and I'll try and explain why I have taken this route to achieve this scheme, rather than what could Have been a much easier route! But who likes easy? :D
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In the last instalment of my Revell 1/32 P-51 LOU IV I had painted the white of the invasion stripes, after delineating the complete area using my “D-Day Stripe Helpers”. This distance is 90” or, in 1/32 scale 71.4mm, not a distance that you can readily measure, so the 1st part of the helpers gives you this measurement. Yep you could make it as close as you can (divide 71x5) but you will then need to cut tape at 14.2mm, or use 14mm (70mm total), which would be good, I suppose...? But can you cut 14mm along the require length of tape? Yep I’m sure that you could but if you buy canopy masks then you will need these. :) However you do it you can always console your self that D-Day stripes were not pristine anyway? That is true for some but on photos of this machine they do look pretty neat and anyway, we all know that crappily painted D-Day stripes on a scale model just look crap! :D
What needs to happen now is to mask out the white, so that just the 2 black stripes are left unmasked so that you can apply the paint. So next up are the smaller of the 2 spacer masks. Apply 3 or 4 of these on both the upper and lower wings, butted up to the inner side of both of the long thin strips applied previously. You will only likely need 2 each side of the fuselage, and 1 or 2 underneath. These elements are shorter than 18 scale inches (14.29mm) because after these are in position more of the long thin strips are butted up to these and their combined wide equals 14.29mm. Take your time and make sure that everything is butted up accurately. Leave a bit of surplus on the long strip as you go around the leading and trailing edges. The aerofoil and compound curvature makes it impossible for these masks to simple go around the wing and line up accurately on the opposite side. Leaving the slack means that you can align it with the spacers on the opposite side, then come back to the leading and trailing edges and then simply pinch the two sides together, which are adhesive side to adhesive side, nicely masking tightly at this difficult to mask point. You may need to use off cuts of the strip to fully make it around the wing. Just make sure that the off cuts are aligned accurately. Sounds long and involved but check out the photos, it isn’t. And work inwards from both sides.
Next we do the same with the slightly longer small strips. These are a scale 18” long (14.29mm) and will position the long strips on the other side of the areas to be painted black. Now remove the positioning pieces from within the black areas (you can leave the other ones at this point or remove them also).
It is now a simple case of masking out the white areas. Don’t worry it is an optical illusion that there isn’t the correct width of white in the middle.
Paint the exposed areas black. I used MR. Paint “Nato Black”.
I’ll uncover the results in the next instalment :)
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The latest round of masking and painting on my 1/32 Revell P-51, the white of the D-Day stripes.
Masking for D-Day stripes is relatively easy, and it is made even more so when I use my "D-Day stripe helpers" I call them "helpers because they aren't actually stripes that mask out the D-Day stripes. To create masks that could do that would require a set of stripes tailored to each different aircraft wing and fuselage. These little beauties allow for easy masking on any wing and... fuselage. having said that however the P-51 possess some challenges, because the foreword edge of the fuselage stripes has to negotiate the rear of the wing route faring and the rear edge the open tail wheel doors. The kit provides both raised and dropped flaps and I will be using the dropped flaps, so getting the mask at the correct angle on those is made difficult. In fact after the first part of the masking process I checked this and found that the masking on the flaps was out! It then took me the best part of a day to get it right! I must have tried 5+ different approaches and in the end I had to temporarily fit them by means of the masking and check the distance between the strips. In hind sight it would have been very much easier to have glued them in place but they weren't because I needed to mask the area that is exposed when they are down.
To mask D-Day Stripes using my "helpers", first of all determine the start position of one outer edge This was discussed earlier in a previous post. Then one of the long thin strips is laid on the wing or around the fuselage. Check and double check that this is straight. On a narrow cord wing the strip will wrap around the wing but you need to take the wing taper and the aerofoil into account as these will put the strip out. So don't wrap it tightly around the wing, and then pinch the strip together at the leading and trailing edges, to seal the strip at those points. Now take a couple of the long wide strips (these are the scale wide of all 5 stripes) and lay them on the wing/fuselage, butted up to the first thin strip at right angles. Put them as far apart as you reasonably can. On the fuselage 3 are sufficient. The wrap a second one of the thin strips around fuselage and wings, butted up to the width strips. Take your time and get them accurately positioned. Remove the width stripes and you now have the complete area of the D-Day stripes masked off. Mask away from these to prevent over spray. Paint white. The black strip painting will be the subject of my next post :)
You will notice that the thin strips have been replaced with Washi Tape on the fuselage. This was because of the complicated shapes at the wing route fairing and the need to angle the tape on the tail wheel bay doors so that it was parallel to the leading edge of them. The vinyl masking material is a little too stiff to be able to do this. This can't be done though to mask out for the black strips. You will see why? In the next post.
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As I said in my last post, which was copied and pasted from the other sites that I posted on, I will explain a little more about the positioning of the S&B on my 1/32 Revell P-51.
The port upper S&B is positioned central to the inner aileron control linkage fairing and pretty central on the wing area, excluding the aileron. Which is why it was left off will the S&B were positioned because it may have thrown out the eye. There is no fairing in the same position on the undersid...e of the wing so to position the starboard under wing S&B I measured the distance from the port wing S&B to the wing tip joint line and then produced a strip of material to the width. It was then a simple case of applying the strip up to the wing tip panel line then applying the S&B mask up to it, again judging the cord wise position. The strip was made narrower than the measurement to take into account the mask surround.
To gauge the position of the fuselage S&B I needed to find the position of the D-Day stripes. According to the information that I have they started 10" behind the fuselage tail break line. So I cut a strip a scale 10" wide (7.94mm) and laid this around the fuselage, touching and to the rear of the break line. I then took one of the total width strips (5x18", 5x14.29mm) 71.45mm from my "D-Day stripe helpers" mask set and lay that on the fuselage with the rear edge at the 10" mark. I then took several of the 18" (14.29mm) long positioning pieces and laid them, butted up to each other, along the fuselage. The outer edges of the central 2 gave me the longitudinal position, relevant to the lower star points. the vertical position was judge by panel lines and other details. It so happened that when the actual mask was positioned, and the mask surround was butted up to the forward edge of the 10" marker, it fell almost in the correct position, So I increased that slightly so that the mask would sit in the correct position, phew :)
You can see on the port wing the beginning of masking for the D-Day stripes there. I will explain the D-Day stripe masking and painting when I get there. But the stripes start, according to the signal about the, "6 inches inboard of the national markings. So, again, I cut a 6" (4.76mm) wide strip, altered to take into account the S&B mask surround.
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I have got to the best part, for me, with my Revell 1/32 scale P-51, the markings. However this could all go horribly wrong as there is going to be quite a bit of masking over markings as they are painted and because of the Natural Metal Finish (NMF) there is a real danger of paint being lifted by masking tape or the masking material.
I painted the NMF of the fuselage starting with Tamiya gloss black, then using Allclad II Dark Aluminium. I haven't painted any panels in any o...
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This morning I added a gloss coat to the cheat lines on my 1/32 Hasegawa Ki-61 before unmasking them. I'm quite pleased with these turned out and that leaves just one more mask left, which will be the only one added after the mottle. That will happen after I add some washes to this as it stands at the moment. Usually when applying a mask it is necessary to use "transfer tape. I cut that from the same masking material. Even those masks that really don't need to be held togethe...r, such as the Hinomaru and wing script, benefit from having transfer tape applied even if I did weed out (remove) the elements that were to be painted, because the transfer tape helps to keep the shape of the mask. It would be very easy to end up with distorted Hinomaru otherwise. However I approach cheat lines in a different way. Cutting the mask with the necessary surround gives you both a positive and negative mask. If you were so inclined you could paint the colour first, apply the positive mask over that, then paint the surrounding paint colour which would be easier but not correct in the scheme of things and would mean that you couldn't weather through the painted marking to the underlying paint layers. The negative mask for the cheat lines has quite a thin web but trying to use transfer tape can just make life difficult! So I apply the positive mask first then, carefully, apply the negative part around it. It takes a bit of patience but it easily done. You must make sure that the negative mask is properly butted up to the negative mask but that, again is not difficult. Once the negative part is in position the positive mask is weeded out. Then mask up to prevent over spray, the most difficult and time consuming part, then crack out the paint. I used Tamiya paints thinned with leveling thinner for these cheat lines the blue is XF-8. :)
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Continuing with my Hasegawa 1/32 Ki-61 I masked and painted the script on the wings and applied a gloss coat to the still masked Hinomaru and the tail, ready for a wash. I should have applied the gloss coat to the tail, and the fuselage band after painting them but I didn't think about it! But it wasn't a major deal after the fact. However the meatballs and wing yellow ID bands were easier to do while still masked, to not get gloss varnish on the NMF. I don't know if the glos...s varnish will alter the NMF so I'm trying to avoid getting gloss on it. It doesn't need it to enable the wash to work. In fact the wash on the NMF will dull it a little, which is a desired effect? And to day I unmasked everything that was still masked and I quite like the outcome. I still get a little excited when I unmask markings, I suppose it's that that keeps me painting them, decals are just not the same! :D
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Continuing with my 1/32 Hasegawa Ki-61 I am closing in on painting on the mottle camo. The consensus may be to piant it before applying the markings, all of which will be painted on but as the base is a natural metal finish (NMF) there could be problems with paint being lifted by the masking. So to try and mitigate this problem as much as possible. The main reason though for applying the markings before the mottled camo is because this is how it was in real life. I will be ma...sking out some of the markings while applying the mottle because in some areas the space is limited and I don't think that I am that good! :) I painted the anti-glare panel on the upper cowling, applying a swipe of PVA glue in areas, to show ware. I also painted the walk ways at the same time. I had to create masks for those. The black is Colourcoats AC J08 Mitsubishi Cowl blue black. I painted the yellow wing leading edge ID sections last night, using colourcoats, AC J19 ID Yellow and just now, well 30 mins ago Painted the red ID band on the rear fuselage, the red on the cowling MG blanking plates, the wing gun star bursts and the ID number on the undercarriage doors. I created masks for all of these parts. Colourcoats AC J20 was used. The ID band was a simple strip of masking material at a scale 160mm applied around the fuselage, I then used thin strips of masking tape butted up to that strip, masked away from it and then removed the strip.
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I'm closing in on getting my 1/32 Hasegawa Ki-61 ready for the markings. I have to really think about the painting because of the natural metal finish (NMF) that means using paint masks, or any masking, over previously applied paint can cause that paint to lift, when the masks are removed. The tail was painted before anything else but now needs a gloss coat, as do some other parts, so that a wash can be applied. Then those parts will need a mat coat.

Very nice product. Easy to use, especially if you follow the instructions. The masks save a ton of time when painting camouflage patterns. Highly recommended.

Mal produced some custom masks for me when building my large-scale Thunderbird 2, very efficient, easy to deal with and the masks worked superbly! I've used his "conventional" masks on 1:32 Spitfire as well with excellent results. Very helpful and nice bloke.

I love how Miracle Paint masks are so easy to use. They are the only paint masks that have comprehensive instructions so even a novice can use them. The vinyl material is also the best as it doesn't shrink back at the cut line.

From the material, precision of cut to the service provided, they produce the best tool for taking your Modeling the highest level. Thanks!