1/72 Halbertstadt D.II issue

[Zabu]

Gentleman, I have a couple of doubts in my mind about this subject and I would like some kind of answer if you please. In a 1/72 scale, how hard/soft should be the red brown/dark green edge (borders)?? Were these aircraft (in real life) airbrushed or painted with a brush? And what about the undersurfaces? Pale Blue, clear doped fabric or it depends of the aircraft? Sorry for so many questions.Thank You.

[Bonehead]

Zabu,

I am going to go WAY out on a limb here and state something that I have been thinking for quite a while now....

The "conventional wisdom" (sometimes an oxymoron) is that the soft edged merging between colors often seen on German aircraft is due to the paint being softly merged with a spray gun application. Having looked at a lot of photos, I am not so sure this is true. In fact many photos appear as if the soft edge was applied by BRUSH using some sort of a blending technique. This would indicate that the paint was applied with a brush and not sprayed on.

This is just my personal opinion and I am willing to have somebody prove me wrong on this. However, the more I look at pics the less convinced I am that these soft edges are sprayed on.

There. That ought to raise some hackles!!

[jellytwig]

Bonehead's quite correct. Some official directives did state that the edges of the colours were to be blended with a brush. However, some finishes were brushed to a hard edge and some were sprayed with a spray-gun. I'm afraid the only recourse is to study photographs of your particular subject as different production batches, different sub-contractors, field-applied finishes and repairs soon resulted in a variety of finishes being observed. My gut-feeling for the Halbie is edges feathered in with a brush or rag for the top surfaces and a hard edge to the lower, pale blue flying surfaces. The delination between the dark upper and pale blue lower colours on the fuselage is quite tricky as it needs to be quite neat but without a hard edge.
I find that masking tape held off the surface by rolled out Blutac or Silly Putty works well.
Well. that's my spanner chucked!

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Zabu:
Halb.D.II aircraft were spray painted. Much faster and uses less paint to cove the surfaces. Albatros used spray painting also.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[Zabu]

This humble modeler thanks very much for your answers. Dan-San, I'm honoured!! Thank you so much. O.K. So I think that I will bet on a very slight border on top surfaces, and try to do it even more slighter between lower and upper surfaces. Keeping in mind that this is a 1/72 scale... lets see what comes out!! Cheers

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Zabu:
The honor is mine, I am pleased to be of help.
Very blue skies,
Dan-San