Painting black and yellow banded ejection handles

[hughb]

Recently while painting up a 1:48 hornet ejection seat, I was having trouble painting consistent sized black bands on the yellow handles. When looking at photos of the real seats, I realised the black portions are not individual bands, but rather a consistent black spiral on the yellow base. This gave me an idea!

After painting the solid yellow portion, cut a thin strip of Tamiya tape to the required width of the black band. Alternatively you can use pre-cut thin tape, the smallest I have seen is 0.4mm made by Aizu. Paint this strip of tape with thinned black paint so it can really soak into the tape but remain flexible. Now use this to wind around the yellow handle, creating the black bands.

It still requires patience and precision to space the wraps equidistantly, and can be fiddly to thread the tape through the small hole, however is much easier than painting. While the tape has some stickiness to hold it in place, the tape can be secured with a thin coat of clear gloss over the handle. An overall coat of matt clear if desired will give the whole seat the same sheen.

Here's some photos. As noted this is 1:48 and you can't fit many spirals on the handle. In 1:72 this technique might not be possible, but for 1:32 would be very applicable.

[David E]

https://www.hpmhobbies.com/rip-real-hrr ... arter-set/

[bell209]

Good tip - thanks, Hugh!

[hughb]

No worries Rob.

David I had seen that device not long ago. Does it work work well, it seems like a great idea. Though does the finished part appear as two wires twisted together with an outside 'bumpy' surface. Maybe a dip in epoxy would smooth the outer surface and fill in the 'bumps'?