I would advise against using masking tape to do this if you go the brush route. I tried it with the venerable Tamiya tape, and paint seeped under the tape because of the uneven surface of the radiators and the wing braces, even after I burnished it. When I painted the other wing, I just used the "bumps" on the radiators as a reference and tried to get it as straight as possible, and it worked pretty well.

With tape:

By hand:

Yeah, I suck at painting straight lines with a brush.

In any case, I think if you were to do a light drybrush using the mask, then using that as your guide then even somebody like me could get a straight line.

The thing is the stripe isn't the hard bit, it's fairly easy to paint by hand.

the hard bit is the weathering, and making it not feel like a 1/270 toy. I always found it amusing that a gear doesn't look like a giant gear shrunk down until you repaint it, I've had many a fun night painting brass gears brass, rocks rock coloured, and sand back to look like sand. It's due to the specular refraction, larger things have more pronouced shadows than the same objects scaled down would have. SO to make an small object have the same feel as a large object you have to make the highlights and shadows more pronounced.

Rodent, every time I see that RGI of yours, I cry a little inside due to it's sheer awesomeness.

Anyways, I tried masking tape and it didn't work so well. Ended up redoing it by hand and went over the black parts in black again to fix the first attempt. Looks much better

Masking tape worked well for me:

I'm going to admit I don't do much painting anymore but an idea on how to get a single, straight line on an external surface could be to stretch a string out and "paint" using that. If anyone has ever used a chalk line to lay out straight line the idea would be the same.

I'm going to admit I don't do much painting anymore but an idea on how to get a single, straight line on an external surface could be to stretch a string out and "paint" using that. If anyone has ever used a chalk line to lay out straight line the idea would be the same.

The problem is it's not a flat surface so you get bleed with masking tape (unless your lucky), and you can't lay out a straight line with a string across it (also how are you going to hold the string, the model and the brush). TBH I think it's far better to do it by eye.

I used tape, the Tamia one, and it came out fine, I dry brushed it until I got the brightness I wanted and then weathered it some. It definitely gives it a nice look. I agree taping can give the issues mentioned in the video, but I have been building models since the early 70s so I have picked up some tricks over the years, not as good as some, better than others.. I need to practice with a airbrush and see what I can do with it. I want to repaint one of my Lambdas, so I need some skill to do it, and I have never really used an airbrush.

On mine, I used regular painting methods instead of drybrushing. I think if you used drybrushing it would work, though. There isn't enough paint on the brush for capillary action to draw it under. The bristles might push some under the tape, though. Personally, I've been painting a long time so I have a very steady hand, but if you don't then I think masking might work.

I used blue painter's tape and Testor's spray paint. There was a bit of bleed under the tape but not bad.

I'm going to admit I don't do much painting anymore but an idea on how to get a single, straight line on an external surface could be to stretch a string out and "paint" using that. If anyone has ever used a chalk line to lay out straight line the idea would be the same.

The problem is it's not a flat surface so you get bleed with masking tape (unless your lucky), and you can't lay out a straight line with a string across it (also how are you going to hold the string, the model and the brush). TBH I think it's far better to do it by eye.

Actually, my thought is to have the model clamped somehow so it wouldn't move. As for holding the string and brush I was thinking of putting paint on the string and then pressing that alongside the wing. Get a little paint on the string, pull it tight/straight, then use it to "paint" on the line.

I'm going to admit I don't do much painting anymore but an idea on how to get a single, straight line on an external surface could be to stretch a string out and "paint" using that. If anyone has ever used a chalk line to lay out straight line the idea would be the same.

The problem is it's not a flat surface so you get bleed with masking tape (unless your lucky), and you can't lay out a straight line with a string across it (also how are you going to hold the string, the model and the brush). TBH I think it's far better to do it by eye.

Actually, my thought is to have the model clamped somehow so it wouldn't move. As for holding the string and brush I was thinking of putting paint on the string and then pressing that alongside the wing. Get a little paint on the string, pull it tight/straight, then use it to "paint" on the line.

tips on how to paint stripes on textured surface.

1) use masking tape to indicate position and size of stripe

2) take a pin /needle dip it in paint of stripe colour, draw across the edges of masking tape

3) remove tape and fill in the box

a little more work but this will prevent bleeding of paint out side of desired area.

and i got to agree with rodent, you don't have to make it perfectly straight since you need to weather the stripes to blend in too make it look good.

it would actually be more troublesome for a perfect straight line too blend in properly because you need to reshadow and highlight the models to give it the freshly out of factory feel

Here's a closeup of mine:

Here's a closeup of mine:

Tie Interceptor with Blood Stripes by Jay Adan, on Flickr

That looks Photoshopped, unless ofc you managed to get it to defy gravity and move fast enough to leave motion blur. .... Looks very nice.

I did it to 2 of mine before Aces were a thought. I used tape to make the open area and dry brushed the red on there gently. No bleeding occurs and it comes out looking weathered. Don't stroke with the brush, gently dab the bristles into the area and follow through until your stripe is done. This is fairly easy if you know what dry brushing is..