The secret of success here is to pick a simple but effective color scheme. A yellow EC135 with black round the windows looks superb. I briefly owned a bright red EC135 built by Mike Ellis and it looked a million dollars with its simple paintwork. By contrast my BK117 hospital ship took 20 hours just to mask off and that has only 3 colors over a silver basecoat. If you are going to make a scale model of a particular helicopter, and can get to that helicopter, you have a big advantage. Talk to the people who own or fly the helicopter and they will probably be able to give you the exact details of the color paint used. If not, take lots of color pictures and take them to your paint store and they will almost certainly be able to computer match the colors for you. Otherwise its checking out the books and web pages to find the color scheme you want to model. Again, take them to the paint store to get a color match.

The selection of the paint type is not too critical. You have to decide whether the finish will be matte, semi gloss or high gloss. If you are using a motor that is not running high nitro content fuel, there is no need to clearcoat the final paint. Most automotive paints will withstand brief exposure to fuel and exhaust without degradation. If you are making a military helicopter, you need matte colors and the easiest way to get them is to use the paints designed to go under a clearcoat and simply not clearcoat the finish. For semi gloss finishes, gloss lacquer can be used. This will dry to a lightly shiny finish. To get a better gloss and still maintain that scale "thin paint" look, add some "wet look" enamel catalyst. It has the property of keeping the paint in a fluid state for longer and yet when it dries, it dries harder. The paint flashes off as normal so if you havent overloaded it, it won't run, but it stays tacky for several hours and this allows the surface to form a super smooth and thus shiny gel. it is also very fuel proof and acetone has difficulty getting to it. For a really high gloss finish, use automotive paint and a 2-part clearcoat but it will look thicker and less scale like, unless the paint is metallic.

First you need to paint the basecoat. This should be the lightest color on the helicopter as it is easy to paint dark over light but difficult to paint light over dark. Paint the whole body in this color. You really need a compressor and spraygun to do this properly, but it can be done with aerosols. The problem with aerosols is the consistency of the paint over a large area. They are usually very thin to make them spray well and this makes the chance of a run or sag much higher. Also when the aerosol is new the pressure is high and there is a chance of an orange peel finish. As the can gets emptier, the pressure drops and there is a chance of splatter. In any case, if you use aerosols, you should clearcoat the finished result, as aerosol paints don’t seem to be as fuel proof as automotive paints.

The spray gun I use is a detail gun that can be bought from Sears for about $70 or the identical gun comes from other sources such as Harbor Freight for under $20. At that price it pays to buy two and throw one away when it starts to get clogged up and spray less than a perfect pattern.

One way I found to reduce the chances of any mishaps with painting is to keep the fuselage moving as you paint it. I found a surplus store which sold geared motors and a 6 rpm 115v motor was about $50. I made up a long extension shaft and fitted it to temporary formers taped into the fuselage to make up a system like I was roasting the fuselage on a spit. It rotated every 10 seconds so I didn’t have to move around it risking catching a hose on the fresh paint, and any heavy areas soon worked themselves out and reduced the chances of a run. If you do make up something like this, give it a ½ hour test run before applying paint and do it over a blanket so that if it does fall off, it lands on something soft and doesn’t damage the primed surface.

If you don’t do it this way, you will have to figure out some way of getting to the entire surface without touching it. You could rig a pulley up and hang it from that. Then you can spray underneath and then lower it down to do the top. This is how I did the BK117 that was too large to be roasted. The big problem with doing it this way is that you need to find something else to anchor the fuselage from. If you don’t, when you spray the tail fin, the air pressure will blow the fin away from you and you will be chasing it with the spray gun that will give you very mixed results. If you have a "stinger" under the tail, tie a cord to it and use it to stop the fuse from twisting. Maybe it could be tied to a weight so that the weight could be moved to allow you to spray from the other side. This is useful when you are spraying in a garage with only one window and the light comes from one direction. When you get to the other side it is difficult to see as you are working against the light. Turn the fuselage around and work from the lit side.

This brings us to where you are going to do the spraying. I like to use my garage, but I have to empty it first and cover all of the items left in it. Then I have to figure on painting the garage floor again after I have done my spraying. This seems to work out fairly well as the floor needs painting about every 6 months or so and that is about as often as I paint a model. There is a problem with using the garage though. It is best to paint with the doors closed so no dust or bugs can fly in and mess up the paint. However, doing this is very harmful to the painter, except with a closed mask and a forced air breathing system. Do use a lot of common sense here, if you spray paint it will harm you if you breathe it in so the very least you need is a good mask and some goggles. If you spray in a closed environment to keep the dust down, don’t stay in it for more than a few minutes and get into fresh air as soon as possible.

As I live in Florida, humidity can be a problem. My garage is part of the house so I will open the door into the garage and let the air conditioning reduce the humidity in the garage before spraying. If you spray and get "blooming" which is a milky appearance to the paint, you can usually get rid of it by putting it in an air-conditioned environment quickly.

Right, you have got the model suspended or on the roasting spit. The floor is clean, the benches all covered up and the car is out of the garage. The compressor is up to pressure and you are ready to start the painting. Read the instructions on the paint can if there are any. It usually tells you what ratio of thinners to use. It’s normally about 25% but it may vary. It may also recommend a spray pressure, but if not, between 35 and 40PSI is usually ok. Try it out on a test piece before starting on the model, just to be sure. I like to make up a jar of thinned paint and then if I have any left over, I have some for my airbrush if I need to do any minor touch ups.

The next job is to remove all of the dust from the model. Dust specks rarely arrive in the paint; they are usually on the surface waiting for some paint to make them show up. The best way to get rid of the dust is with a new paintbrush, the airline from your compressor and then to finish off with a tack rag. This is a cloth impregnated with a sticky stuff that will pick up the last traces of anything loose on the body. Do use rubber gloves when using the tackrag as it makes your hands all sticky as well, and in fact you should be using rubber gloves all of the time you are handling the primed fuselage. Don’t forget to lay out the other pieces of the model, which are to be painted as well, such as a cabin top or whatever. All the detachable pieces should be painted separately and they all need to be wiped with the tag rag to remove any traces of dust.

The secret of a good paint job is to put on several light coats of paint, not one heavy one. If you go too heavy you will see a nice shiny finish develop and you will continue on with it. When you next look at it, it will have sagged and runs start and you will be in trouble. If that does happen, don’t be tempted to try and fix it. Leave it to set hard for 24hrs and then flat it down with some 400 grit wet and dry and then paint again. What you are trying for is a nice even coat of paint, no real gloss at this stage, even if you are using gloss paint. Spray a fine coat on and let it flash off for a few minutes while you have breather. Then spray another, this will meld into the first and the color will become more even. Do this for 3 or 4 coats and you should have a nice even color coating. If you are spraying gloss paint, the last coat should have an even shine to it. If you are spraying car paint, it wont have a shine and if it does shine, you have put too much on and may have a run or sag about to develop.

This is the base coat and needs to be left to harden thoroughly before masking off for any other coats. Leave it at least 24 hours. If there are any dust specks, sand them down with 400 grit or finer on a rubber-sanding block. Similarly with any sags or runs. If you go through the paint to the primer, use an airbrush to touch it up, or use the touch up gun if you don’t have an airbrush. Fine scratches in the surface wont matter at this stage if you are going to clearcoat over it. You may also consider the strategic placement of a decal if there are only one or two imperfections.

If you are only going to spray one color, then you are done with spraying. If you are going to do other colors you will have to mask off the first coat. Do be certain it is hard before applying masking tape. If it is soft the tape will pull the first coat of paint off when you take it off. Spray increasingly dark colors so that the last coat is the darkest. To mask off the first area, use 3M 1/8" vinyl masking tape to do the edges. It is very easy to use and will not bleed under if applied properly. The secret is not to stretch it in any way. If you are doing an inside corner, leave an extra bit so that it is compressed into the corner rather than being under tension. If it is under tension it will lift. Ease it over rivets and into panel lines so that it lays flat on the surface. Micro mark sell a special tool for squeezing it into place but the handle of a teaspoon will do as well. Make sure it is bonded down completely and then put a line of ½" or ¾" masking tape over it, but not quite overlapping the edge. I prefer the blue long duration tape as it sticks well but wont bond to the paint and pull it off. Once you have a thick base layer of tape, you can apply the masking paper and I like to find a use for all of those junk mail catalogs which seem to arrive with monotonous regularity. The best is gloss paper. Don’t use newspaper, the paint will bleed through. Tape down the outside edges of the paper so that overspray wont find its way underneath the paper onto the basecoat.

An excellent idea I collected from Beavis' web site is to spray the last color again just over the masking tape edge and very thinly. This seals the edge, but if there is any bleed under, its the same color as the undercoat and of course doesn't show. Nice one Beavis.

Spray the second and subsequent coats if there are any, but do leave plenty of time between coats for the paint to dry before putting masking tape on it. If you make an error, sand it off as before and recoat with the final color, don’t go back through the whole sequence again. Minor errors may not need repainting but remember, you cannot sand metallic paints without repainting. Try and check for problems before removing the masking as it is easy to fix them and repaint while the masking is still on. While on the subject of removing masking tape, you should remove the paper and blue wide tape as soon as the paint has flashed off. The vinyl tape should be removed when the paint is almost hard. If you peel it off too early you will get a ragged edge where paint will peel off the tape and flop back onto the body. If you wait too long the paint may crack where you peel it off and also leave a ragged edge. The timing is not critical; I like to wait an hour or so before taking it off. When you do peel it off, fold the tape back along itself so that you are pulling it on top of itself and this way any loose sticky paint will get folded back down and should not produce the ragged edge.

Leave the finished article to harden for at least 24 hours before doing any more work on it. There’s nothing quite so frustrating as having a perfect paint job with a thumbprint in it. Now it’s ready for decals to be applied. If they are simple preprinted self adhesive decals with a vinyl or Mylar clear back ground they can be applied dry or with some soapy water and squeezed dry. When you cut them out from their sheet, always cut nicely rounded corners rather than pointed ones. They will have less tendency to peel back than a sharp point.

Long decals are difficult to do and even more so if they are over a compound curved surface. Again, wear your rubber gloves to stop fingerprints getting on the clear areas and be careful not to get the gloves stuck to the clear areas either. If you are doing a long decal, try tacking it down on just one edge to get it lined up and then go vertically down the center to lock it in position. Then lift the edge and stick it down again rubbing with a soft cloth from the center to remove any air bubbles. If you have a very difficult double curved surface to get round you can use a heat gun to gently soften the film and allow it to stretch or you can cut notches in it with some scissors to get it round the curves. If you do get any air bubbles trapped and they wont go away, prick the bubble with a pin and squeeze the air out while rubbing the decal down into position.

If you are making up your own lettering from pre printed vinyl sheets put a piece of masking tape along the base line where you want the letters to go. This will give you a level to work to and ensure a straight line. Writing on military machines which give instructions on oil types and so on can be done with Letraset rub down letters and they have the right semi gloss finish to them. They do need to be protected though, as they are very fragile. Spray a little matte lacquer over them to keep them from being scratched off.

Some helicopters have very fancy graphics on them and you have two choices here. Either do some very nifty airbrush work or get them made on vinyl. The latter is the easiest for the less experienced (I include myself in that category). Do your design work on the computer or take a very good photo of the graphic. You need to be able to get it into a computer and then give it to your local friendly sign maker. These guys have printers which can print amazing colors onto a piece of vinyl and then cut it out for you. However you do have to get the pattern into the computer and the more you do for them the lower the cost will be. Print them out on paper first and lay them on the body to be sure they are the right size. This requires the use of a dimensionally accurate program such as Corel Draw so that when you print out a 4" high decal, your printer makes one 4" high and not some arbitrary size.

What you will end up with is two pieces of paper with your decal sandwiched between them. One side will have the adhesive on it and the other will simply be a protective layer. Peel back the paper and cut it so that the bottom of the decal is just on the edge of the paper. Now you can accurately judge the height when laying it on the model. These vinyl decals have excellent adhesives and they are not designed to peel off. If you have to take it off to reposition it, be careful it doesn’t pull the paint off with it. You may have to cut one side edge of the paper to the edge of the decal as well so you have two points of reference for positioning.

If you have to do the work with an airbrush, then it is outside the scope of this tome to tell you how to do it. Just practice your artwork before you start to paint the fuselage so you are exactly sure of the sequences involved before you start.

If you have painted your model with gloss paint and finished the decals, you are done in this chapter. If you have painted in military matte paint and applied lots of rub down letters, they need to be protected and the best way is to use a two-part clearcoat with a matting agent. This takes the gloss away, but only if the clearcoating is misted over the letters. Don’t try and spray it on like a gloss clearcoat, you will get a semi gloss finish. The procedure is much the same as for the gloss clearcoat as follows.

If you don’t expect to do many paintjobs, you may want to get someone to do the clearcoat for you. It’s expensive to buy the materials and does take some skill to get a perfect job. Talk to the guy at the local paint shop. They are always clearcoating cars and may be prepared to use the leftovers from a run to clearcoat your model for you for a very modest fee. Ask them how to present the model to them so they can do the clearcoating easily with the minimum of effort on their behalf. This will ensure a better job than if they have to mess around getting it just right. They may say they want wire loops from each part so they can hang it up to spray it. Help them out and it will repay you.

So you have decided to do it yourself. Good for you. However, clearcoating is much more dangerous than spraying lacquer. The clearcoat is poisonous and when mixed up it will set like epoxy, so don’t breathe it. Invest in a really good filter mask and a good set of protective goggles to keep it out of your eyes. You only get one set of lungs and one pair of eyes so look after them. Read the instructions on the can when you buy it. Dilution and mixing is important. Usually you mix 3 parts lacquer with 1 part hardener and 1 part reducer. Do filter this into the gun, as any bits of grit in here will be very difficult to get rid of. Mix up enough to do the entire job in several coats, it will take sometime to set.

It is even more important to put on light coats than with the paint. Wait about 20 minutes between coats and then put on another coat. Do at least 3 coats, preferably more. They will meld into each other and produce a smooth high gloss finish after a few seconds. If you get a run, do not try and fix it. Wait until the next coat and see what happens. When it's all done, leave it 24 hours to set hard, then you can handle it all you like.

Some time ago I received an order from a customer for an EC135 fuselage and he wanted it painted black. This is very difficult to paint as it shows up every imperfection. I managed to get the base coat on in a nice even color. Then I sprayed the first clearcoat and got runs and sags everywhere. It was a real mess. I let it set overnight and then sanded the worst of it down, but I went through the color coat and into the primer. I had to flat the lot down and reprime it and start again. Once again I got he color coat on perfectly. Then I sprayed the first coat of clear on again and it went bad on me again. I couldn’t believe it. I decided this time that I wasn’t going to go through the color coat again. I decided to put lots of clear on so I would have something to sand away. It looked a lot better after the second coat. I let that flash off and then applied a third coat. Now it was starting to look quite nice. I had it on the roasting spit so the runs were all flowing into the clearcoat. I finally put on a fourth coat and it looked great. There was only one place where the clear wasn’t perfect and that was hard to spot if you didn’t know where to look. Was I happy that day! The shipping company wiped the smile off my face though. They squashed the fuselage when I sent it to the customer. Ah well, you can’t win them all.

This is it with the basecoat on. No gloss finish, just an even color coat.

After 4 clearcoats this is the final result

Chapter 6