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Fishing line for use as pin stripe material?


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Greetings,

Pondering how to do what would be exceedingly thin pin stripes bordering the alternating red/white/blue livery seen on '68 and '68 Ronnie Kaplan Engineering Trans-Am Javelins, has anyone tried color-keyed fishing line to reproduce something like this?  I simply need a straight line not quite on the border of each colored element, while perhaps this is the best way to get there?  Efforts to turn up decal sheets with straight pinstripes of various widths for tapping Japanese sources almost got me what was required, but now I'm thinking another path will need to be explored...

290570227_1969RKEJavelinfourRonnieweldingstilllarger....jpg.2c191e5d30d622fe67b76b64ffdc5eb4.jpg

Look closely at the photo and one can make out the blue pinstripe just before the red painted rear third of the car comes into view.  Were we looking at the transition to the front third in blue, a pinstripe would be seen again, this time in red.  Advice or ideas how to lay down or control such would be appreciated.  Kind thanks for reading this post....

Mike K./Swede70

 

Edited by swede70
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For this example what might work is getting come clear film decal paper then using one of the Sakura Micron fine line blue permanent markers to draw the stripes, then cut them out of the decal sheet and apply to the model. Since the body is white, the blue stripe doesn't need a white undercoat.  Those markers are available as thin as 0.005".

Sakura-Pigma-Micron-Pen-Finecolor-Fineli

Edited by peteski
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If your on amazon look in among the nail varnish for finger line tape/pin stripe tape. Its about 2mm wide but as thin as bmf and perfectly safe for acrylic paint and clearing over and for less than £1 you get 30 rolls shipped from china with free postage somehow. If you know what colours you want I can easily send you some as i have 300 of them cos while 1 pack had free shipping, when you select 2 the shipping jumped to £15 so I bought 10 individually mainly out of annoyance. Auslowe in Australia also do pin stripes I believe

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2 hours ago, stitchdup said:

If your on amazon look in among the nail varnish for finger line tape/pin stripe tape. Its about 2mm wide but as thin as bmf and perfectly safe for acrylic paint and clearing over and for less than £1 you get 30 rolls shipped from china with free postage somehow. If you know what colours you want I can easily send you some as i have 300 of them cos while 1 pack had free shipping, when you select 2 the shipping jumped to £15 so I bought 10 individually mainly out of annoyance. Auslowe in Australia also do pin stripes I believe

I bought some of that tape but there was a problem...it was vinyl, did not bend well and lifted about a week after I put it on. :( 

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24 minutes ago, vintagerpm said:

Check out Microscale Decals. They make stripe decals for model railroads.

 

Yeah. I have a couple sheets of their various stripes and some of them are pretty fine, but I forget exactly how fine.

If it were me, I'd be tempted to just ignore that fine stripe, but I know that's not your way. If I HAD to do it, I'd mask off and paint the stripe. I'd razor-cut two strips of masking tape, lay them on the model just that >< far apart, and airbrush the stripe. It also might work to try the same thing on clear decal film--mask and airbrush your stripe onto the film. You needn't cut the decal that thin, you can leave it at an easily handled width. 

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Lay down a piece of masking tape that's about 1/2" wide. Cut a slit in the tape, leaving about 1/2" on each end of the tape un-cut.

Remove the tape and apply it where you want the stripe. Apply a fine-point Sharpie in the slit, then remove the tape.

You might want to practice on a plastic soda bottle before you do the real thing.

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1 hour ago, BigTallDad said:

Lay down a piece of masking tape that's about 1/2" wide. Cut a slit in the tape, leaving about 1/2" on each end of the tape un-cut.

Remove the tape and apply it where you want the stripe. Apply a fine-point Sharpie in the slit, then remove the tape.

Caution!  If the model will be clear coated, some clear coats make Sharpie ink run. Like Ray mentioned, test it on something other than your model first.

Edited by peteski
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I know that at least some colors of Sharpie can, with the passage of time, "migrate" up (bleed) through clear coats of all kinds, and even solid paints. It's hard to believe until you've seen it happen. I wouldn't use Sharpie for this, only paint of some kind. 

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1 hour ago, Snake45 said:

I know that at least some colors of Sharpie can, with the passage of time, "migrate" up (bleed) through clear coats of all kinds, and even solid paints. It's hard to believe until you've seen it happen. I wouldn't use Sharpie for this, only paint of some kind. 

I was unaware.

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13 hours ago, peteski said:

Caution!  If the model will be clear coated, some clear coats make Sharpie ink run. Like Ray mentioned, test it on something other than your model first.

While testing is underway, try brushing some thinned paint instead of using a Sharpie.

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It's not an easy skill to master (but what is?), but thanks to the liveries on British steam locomotives, "lining" is something railway modellers over here do a lot of:

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/86831-what-is-better-for-lining-a-bowpen-or-a-bob-moore-pen/

A lining pen, or bowpen, is a specialist device that has two wide but thin parts to the "nib" which trap a reservoir of paint between them, and the width of the line is set by a threaded wheel. Paint then comes out at the point by capillary action. You can use pretty much any kind of paint, as long as the consistency is right. Let's just say a LOT of practice is needed, but once you've got it, you'll never have to worry about pinstriping anything again...

best,

M.

 

 

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On 12/9/2019 at 2:22 AM, swede70 said:

Greetings,

Pondering how to do what would be exceedingly thin pin stripes bordering the alternating red/white/blue livery seen on '68 and '68 Ronnie Kaplan Engineering Trans-Am Javelins, has anyone tried color-keyed fishing line to reproduce something like this?

Mike K./Swede70

 

Hey Mike

I just picked up some pin stripe tape made by 'line o tape' inc...red.. in 1/32"..and they also have 1/64" in blue or red


 

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On 12/14/2019 at 5:18 PM, Matt Bacon said:

It's not an easy skill to master (but what is?), but thanks to the liveries on British steam locomotives, "lining" is something railway modellers over here do a lot of:

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/86831-what-is-better-for-lining-a-bowpen-or-a-bob-moore-pen/

A lining pen, or bowpen, is a specialist device that has two wide but thin parts to the "nib" which trap a reservoir of paint between them, and the width of the line is set by a threaded wheel. Paint then comes out at the point by capillary action. You can use pretty much any kind of paint, as long as the consistency is right. Let's just say a LOT of practice is needed, but once you've got it, you'll never have to worry about pinstriping anything again...

best,

M.

 

I've heard them called Drafting Pens. A simple Google search showed these as examples

135463.jpg?ba=middle%2Ccenter&balph=3&blend64=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5qZXRwZW5zLmNvbS9pbWFnZXMvYXNzZXRzL3dhdGVybWFyazIucG5n&bm=difference&bs=inherit&mark64=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5qZXRwZW5zLmNvbS9pbWFnZXMvYXNzZXRzL3dhdGVybWFyazEucG5n&markalign=top%2Cright&markalpha=30&markscale=16&q=90&w=600&s=f7728bceb6861de2e13e4ca101ecbc30

135464.jpg?ba=middle%2Ccenter&balph=3&blend64=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5qZXRwZW5zLmNvbS9pbWFnZXMvYXNzZXRzL3dhdGVybWFyazIucG5n&bm=difference&bs=inherit&mark64=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5qZXRwZW5zLmNvbS9pbWFnZXMvYXNzZXRzL3dhdGVybWFyazEucG5n&markalign=top%2Cright&markalpha=30&markscale=16&q=90&w=600&s=f850b28a735bd6acd5653ffb82f3681f

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When I needed very thin stripes like that for some of my 1/144 airliners, I drew them on my computer in the color and width I needed and then printed them on my laser printer. I spray them with a future or decal film and apply them like any other decal. I use a freeware called Inkscape to draw them, but for simple lines you can probably use Word.

Ben

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 12/9/2019 at 2:22 AM, swede70 said:

Greetings,

Pondering how to do what would be exceedingly thin pin stripes bordering the alternating red/white/blue livery seen on '68 and '68 Ronnie Kaplan Engineering Trans-Am Javelins, has anyone tried color-keyed fishing line to reproduce something like this?  I simply need a straight line not quite on the border of each colored element, while perhaps this is the best way to get there?  Efforts to turn up decal sheets with straight pinstripes of various widths for tapping Japanese sources almost got me what was required, but now I'm thinking another path will need to be explored...

 

Look closely at the photo and one can make out the blue pinstripe just before the red painted rear third of the car comes into view.  Were we looking at the transition to the front third in blue, a pinstripe would be seen again, this time in red.  Advice or ideas how to lay down or control such would be appreciated.  Kind thanks for reading this post....

Mike K./Swede70

 

I received the 1/64" line o tape and applied it to the edge of the black on this car...

20200116_184913_HDR.jpg.e77d115e2f44aa44fca1e55c6698303e.jpg

 

 

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