Tube stripes

[Ghost]

I am looking to hand paint the tube stripes for my next build, and have been experimenting with shades of blues available.

Being in the UK I am looking at the Humbrol range, and after much reading and advice sought I have bought four shades to compare, and thought I would post them if anyone else is interested.

I have gone for:

Gloss

14 - French Blue

15 - Midnight Blue

48 - Mediterranean Blue

Satin

221 - Garter Blue

I had to just brush them on quick this evening as had to put the kids to bed, so excuse the rough brush strokes:

[troopermaster]

It's hard to say which is the perfect match. I would guess that several shades may have been used judging by the real helmets that have surfaced over the years. Now these colours may have faded over the years, I don't know, but they seem to differ and they don't always look glossy.

The same thing can be said for the grey too. A lot of the time the grey looks satin to me, but unless you have several original helmets to compare then we are still only guessing.

The #14 looks the best from your comparison. I have used it and the colour looks great, especially with the matching ab buttons. #15 looks very dark and although I used to use that colour, I won't use it again since I tried #14.

[Rolf]

I used number 14 too

[RoCKo]

****, i should have used #14 too instead off #15!

#15 looks definatly too dark in my opinion!

[MandalorianWarrior87]

Thinking of getting some when i recieve my AP bucket now, lol. Think it'll look better than decals.

[Pappy]

Hi guys

I just discuss it with my local fellow trooper,

And because of it's result,in the middle of very limited time back then,could they possibly used spray instead of brush?

Did humbrol spraypaint already available at the time?

Could it be that the 'brush strokes' are actually scratch marks?

the result is too neat for everybody that works in a terribly hurry situations,the paint spreads could occur if they used paint and not decals....we think

We don't have enough resources to look at,so.....what do you guys think?

[pandatrooper]

My personal theory is that the blue tube stripes were airbrushed with stencils. Having done a lot of screen printing and airbrushing in my time (along with being a professional artist / graphic designer for 25 years), I believe they were airbrushed with a stencil for several reasons.

Although several people say they were hand painted, I don't think the strokes look brush painted. The tapered corners are too sharp for a beginning and end brush stroke.

Several people say they were screen printed. I can't see them doing this. This would require a rather complex curved screen frame, and I don't think they would have done that on a compound curved surface especially with the stripes so close to the corner of the "face" (the cheek tubes curve up then intersect with the face, and the tubes strips are really close to that intersection.)

I believe they are airbrushed sprayed stencils because:

- it would have been very easy to cut some airbrush frisket or vinyl stencil to make the tube stripes

- the stripes themselves have a very "hand cut" look to them, they don't look like they were carefully done, they look a bit rushed and eye balled in terms of symmetry

- sometimes, the painting is so thin from the application or they're worn to the point where you can almost make out the stipple marks

- I could swear sometimes I see corner bleeds from cutting the frisket too much, a tell tale sign they're stencil / airbrushed

- Ainsworth himself painted many of the helmets white using his automotive spray painting guns because he fixed up cars. So having that equipment on hand would make airbrushing a stencil easy

- Humbrol paints could easily be thinned and used in an airbrush, so could any automotive paints he had on hand at the time

These are just my personal theories based on my own experience, nothing more.

[Pappy]

That's about it I suppose

Because I've tried,and even spent a whole day alone trying to replicate these results with brush(specialized brush and very little amount of humbrol,very very carefully) on one stripe 'pattern' each attempt with no satisfying results,after that I can't stop thinking about it and handpainted my helmet anyway.....because I'm not patience and want to wear my helmet then my friend discuss about it (**** you! )

there's no way they could do the stripes with that results on very limited timeframe

Hmmmm......I already painted my helmet white,how to remove the stripes without losing the white paint? oh well

dude I adore you

[dutchy]

# 14 is the one to use I think. I use it also like a lot of other troopers here

[iconoclasta_88]

I don't have a real theory on how it was painted, but I have an idea of how would I have done it if in hurry and having to do it with whatever I had in hand:

1. Place two masking tape strips running along the tube, being this the upper and lower end of the stripes.

2. with a pencil, draw on the masking tape some marks for the wide of the stripes to be.

3. use a flat thin brush to hand paint all the strips, making them curve from top to button, and running only one stroke would make them similar wide.

Thats it.

techniques involved:

1. Stencil (with the masking tape)

2. hand painting

This would even solve the "too sharp edges" issue.

How does that sound.

I mean, thats the way I would have done it.

[Pappy]

@grote broer I used #14 from you for my helmet the closest color(most possibly the same) for tube stripes indeed

Oh hey,next week I'm gonna send what I owe you and Ray hope those greenhorn pilots can deliver it to yo ,fast,or I'll told Jolly to give them........a 'lift'

@Juan,that could also be a possibility,and it was also a fast way to do,and I also used almost the same method,but I made the whole stripes cutted on one tape because i'm not sure if I can do it freehanded for the curves after 2 attempts. But my result after many tries,still,not that good,maybe I'm using the wrong masking tape and I also spent time to 'clean' the mess before it dries fully.

Then Art told me that it's possible too if they used somekind of friscket/friskate/?,I believe it was used for airbrush? Maybe it was thinner and covers more 'tightly' than regular masking tape? And made a stencil out of it,then handpainted it. I never tried,but I'm curious to try it asap

[Trooper6313]

Nr:14 is it Federal Standard 595 Color FS 35526 colorserver

[supa troop]

My personal theory is that the blue tube stripes were airbrushed with stencils. Having done a lot of screen printing and airbrushing in my time (along with being a professional artist / graphic designer for 25 years), I believe they were airbrushed with a stencil for several reasons.

Although several people say they were hand painted, I don't think the strokes look brush painted. The tapered corners are too sharp for a beginning and end brush stroke.

Several people say they were screen printed. I can't see them doing this. This would require a rather complex curved screen frame, and I don't think they would have done that on a compound curved surface especially with the stripes so close to the corner of the "face" (the cheek tubes curve up then intersect with the face, and the tubes strips are really close to that intersection.)

I believe they are airbrushed sprayed stencils because:

- it would have been very easy to cut some airbrush frisket or vinyl stencil to make the tube stripes

- the stripes themselves have a very "hand cut" look to them, they don't look like they were carefully done, they look a bit rushed and eye balled in terms of symmetry

- sometimes, the painting is so thin from the application or they're worn to the point where you can almost make out the stipple marks

- I could swear sometimes I see corner bleeds from cutting the frisket too much, a tell tale sign they're stencil / airbrushed

- Ainsworth himself painted many of the helmets white using his automotive spray painting guns because he fixed up cars. So having that equipment on hand would make airbrushing a stencil easy

- Humbrol paints could easily be thinned and used in an airbrush, so could any automotive paints he had on hand at the time

These are just my personal theories based on my own experience, nothing more.

100% with you on that mate

[troopermaster]

On some helmets you can see the brush marks in the tube stripes.