Stencil Masks - (Maintenance Marks) for small nomenclature.

Why bother!

Maintenance masks added by stencil take a little longer to apply compared to waterslide and dry rub decals.  They do however have one endearing property which will attract the serious scale builder!

Most scale builders will most likely want to "weather" or "distress" their model to add a "used" look to their models.  Some will want a mild "used" look, while others will want a battle tired World War II airframe that literally looks like it has been through the wars! 

Waterslide and dry rub markings can be used on these models, but the disadvantage is the markings will scratch and tare as the model is distressed.  Painted stencil marks however can work well with these procedures, and because they are made of paint they "ware" in a similar way to the airframe when abraded. 

Limitations

Because these markings are cut from vinyl there is a minimum physical size that can be produced.  That limitation depends on the size & types of font that are being used for the maintenance markings.  True "stencil" text can be cut slightly smaller than whole characters which have "doughnut" elements in the middle. 

If you look at the image opposite you can see that the text at the top has small elements (marked in red) which would be loose stencil material.  It is these elements that present limitations in production.  The same text at the bottom is true stencil text and has no doughnut elements.  As you can imagine during the second World War this type of stenciling was widely used as the text could be cut out of stencil card and used repeatedly.

Generally this means that maintenance marks are usually OK at 1/4 scale, and at 1/5 it depends on the model, so it is worth checking to see what is possible.

The used look.

It takes great care to produce a scale model that looks right.  Basically its all about taking the time to reproduce the aircraft as you would expect to see it.  If you are reproducing a restored aircraft they tend to be more dirty than worn out, so a subtle dirty wash over the airframe can produce very realistic results. 

Opposite is a shot of a modified 1/4 scale Jerry Bates plan Sea Fury built by Phil Clarke of Fighter Aces.  Phil has painted the stenciling before applying a dirty wash of thinned paint.  The wash is removed with a soft pad to leave the dirt in the hollows and crevices. 

It is also possible to knock off some parts of the stenciling paint which has to be done with great care to get the right look to the distress. 

The abused look.

If you are wanting to make a really tired airframe you have to plan the layers of paint that you are going to apply as it is highly likely you will expose the underlying paintwork.

Here we can see the wing of a 1/4 scale F4U-5N decorated by Graham Buchanan of Tiger Models.  This model is based around the aircrafts wartime appearance in the Korean War where it was worked very hard.  The wing has been abraded to expose the underlying metalwork.  Rust has even been added where the wig would hinge.

The important thing to note is how the stenciling takes the abuse like the airframe and blends in so well.  This effect is simply not possible with waterslide or dry rub decals.

Interested?

If you are interested in using Stencil Masks for your Maintenance Marks you should contact me with details of your project and we can take it from there.

I do have a number of standard stencil sets, but very often I find scale builders will want unique markings for their model.  In these cases a set of images will be required for me to reproduce the marks.

I will be pleased to assist anyone interested in these marking, so to start the ball rolling just send me a message by clicking here.