Painting rings on bombs and spinners

Here is something I prepared for IPMS Canada a few years ago, which I hope will prove useful for some of you.

I am a regular reader of the various Internet modelling discussion groups and it would seem that the two most frequently asked questions are; 1) how long does it take for Xtracolor paint to dry and 2) how do you paint the rings on conical shaped objects such as spinners, or the noses of bombs. I will save the Xtracolor question for another day, but I will answer the bomb-painting question.

I have seen various suggestions offered, ranging from the plausible, to the inane. In my opinion, inserting the bomb in a drill chuck and while spinning at slow speed, bring a paint brush close to the bomb to apply the rings, or using a small elastic band to mask off the area of the stripe, both fall under the remotely plausible heading. A couple of examples of the inane would be dipping the nose of the bomb in a jar of paint for the first colour, dipping again for the second colour and finally dipping a third time to repeat the first colour. Jeezus! Even Dairy Queen doesn't dip their cones that often, besides, we all know how uncoothe it is to double-dip. Or how about placing your bomb in a lathe and while spinning, apply the stripes. Let me think...how many people do I know with an expensive lathe? Even if it were to work, it would not prove practical if one wanted to paint the rings on the nose of a Me-163 Komet, or He-162 Volksjager. Imagine trying to insert an entire model in the lathe's chuck.

To this end, I offer my solution to this age-old question.

At my local IPMS Chapter meeting, I did a talk on my technique for painting the rings on bombs, or propeller spinners and for the most part, I was gazing at a sea of blank expressions. So, I am trying it again, but with step-by-step photos. All that is required are a few basic tools and some rudimentary math skills. The tools needed should be in any modeller's toolbox and consist of; a good quality masking tape such as Tamiya or 3M (I prefer 3M, but I have shown Tamiya in the photos as it photographs better); a circle template - plastic or steel, it does not matter and an OLFA circle cutter, or any comparable brand.

STEP 1
The first step is to paint the area of the bomb where you will want the stripe to appear. In photo #1, I have applied green to the tip of a bomb from the Fine Molds Judy.
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STEP 2
Once the paint is dry, take a small piece of masking tape and wrap it around the end of the bomb, making sure you cover the area where the stripe will be. Use as small a piece of tape as is possible to avoid wrinkles, or too much overlapping. In photo #2, you can see the bomb covered with tape.

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STEP 3
Next, using your circle template, insert the masked end of the bomb into whatever hole in the template will allow the bomb to poke through, to the point where you want the stripe and then draw a line on the tape, all the way around the bomb, with either pen or pencil, as seen in photo #3.

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STEP 4
Now, peel off the tape and lay it out flat. As seen in photo #4, you will have a piece of tape with a short, slightly curved line.

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STEP 5
The next step, as seen in photo #5, is to match up the curvature of the ink line, to a hole in the circle template, which has the same curvature. I can tell you, it will NOT be the same size hole as used in photo #3. It does not need to be exact, but the closer the better. In this case, the curve matches a hole of 9/16" diameter.

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STEP 6
You no longer need the piece of tape with the ink line. It will be replaced with a new piece, which is laid out on a cutting surface. OK, are you with me so far? We are now getting to the basic math steps. Using the circle-cutter, set it to cut a circle equal to the diameter of the hole selected in photo #5. For the mathematically challenged, this means you would need to set the radius of the cutter at 9/32". As shown in photo #6, a circle is being cut into the new piece of tape.
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STEP 7
Then, adjust the circle cutter slightly to allow it to cut a smaller diameter than what was just cut in photo #6. Place the point of the cutter in the same centre hole as before and make another cut, just inside the previous, as illustrated in photo #7.
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STEP 8
When you remove the excess tape, you are left with a ring of tape as shown in photo #8, which will be used to mask the stripe on the bomb's nose. In reality, with that one ring of tape, you should have enough to mask about three bombs.
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STEP 9
Using a section of the tape ring, place it where you want the stripe on the bomb as seen in photo #9 and wrap it around the nose as per photo #10. Because of the curve in the tape, it will conform to the compound curves of the bomb with next to no wrinkling. Something that would prove impossible, if a straight piece of tape was used. In case your tape does not line up properly, try to ensure that the area where the two ends of the tape meet, will be hidden once the bomb is in place.
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STEP 10
The bomb can now be painted in your choice of colour(s) and once the painting is done, just peel off the tape and admire your perfect rings on the bomb or spinner.

All of the above steps can be repeated, should you need concentric rings on your bombs. While the whole process sounds rather tedious and long, it should take no more than five minutes from start to finish. Using this technique, I was able to mask the rings on all 14 bombs in the Tamiya Lancaster in about 10 minutes.

If you are not comfortable painting the rings on your bombs, this same approach can be used by substituting the appropriately coloured decal film in place of tape and skipping step 1 and step 10.

Cheers
Randy