Painting that pesky small

[Allan]

Hi fellows,

Here's an interesting tip for you all. I'm making the Fujimi 109G/K model, you know the one in 1/48 scale?

Well. the tail wheel is pretty small and comes in one piece (there being a separate part for the tail fork) and you're supposed to carefully paint the wheel or hub first and then the remaining section afterwards. That's a real bind as painting such a small part neatly is pretty tough even with a small brush.

Here's what I did instead. I sanded down the tip of a wooden toothpick until it was just about the same size, or a little smaller, than the size of the hub.

Then, I painted the wheel rubber color. When it was dry I dipped the toothpick into the color I wanted the hub to be and gently dabbed it twice onto a piece of clear decal film. When the paint was dry I trimmed it into shape, soaked it in water and then slid it onto the hub.

And voila! A pretty perfectly round wheel hub that looks painted on! I'll try to post a pic in a day or two.

Allan in Canberra

[Captain Canada]

neat idea !