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[Scooby]

Need a bit of advice on how to correctly spray paint a two tone hull.


When I built my previous lifeboat, many years ago, it had a white waterline stripe separating the red anti-foul from the blue so any error could be easily hidden under the stripe.


The new Tamar class I've been building simply has the white anti-foul directly below the blue.




Do I spray the whole hull white (wait for it to dry), mark up the waterline, then spray just the top half in blue?
 
Or do I mark up the waterline, spray the bottom half white (wait for it to dry), then precisely tape the opposite side of the waterline and spray paint the blue?




The second approach feels like it leaves a lot of possibility for a thin line to remain unpainted, if I'm not absolutely precise applying the masking tape the second time.


Or am I missing a third option?


Any help would be appreciated as I'm really nervous about ruining this model with a poor paint job 

Steve

[justboatonic]

Im reading this as the hull will only be 2 colours, blue and lower half white!

The advice is always spray \ paint from lightest colour first to darkest last.

Make sure you use proper paint masking tape such as from Tamiya or a professional paint sprayer. Dont use the white paper roll stuff from B&Q etc. The edges are not sharp or straight. Once you've sprayed the white, you might want to 'seal' it by spraying over with gloss before masking for the blue. This should help prevent any blue paint 'bleed' making its way into the white if \ when you carefully sand where the blue and white paint meet.

You can also lessen the chance of any edge developing between the two paint finishes if you remove the mask after spraying the blue and before it dries.
If the hull was blue, white line then red, you'd still paint the white first. Mask off the white line and above, then spray the red. Remove the blue mask only, retain the white line mask and add to the red. Spray the blue then remove both the red and white line mask.

[Scooby]

Yes, only the 2 colours. The top half is blue, the lower half is white.


I've got Tamiya masking tape and I'm using the Halfords acrylic spray paints because that's what the lifeboat guys seem to swear by.




So if I understand you correctly, I mask at the waterline and spray the lower half in white. I then remove that mask and apply a new mask, again at the waterline, in preparation to spray the blue. But before I do I "seal" the edge with a bit of white. Then I spray the blue. And removing the masking tape before its fully hardened should reduce the chances of an edge.


(I've read the pinned post in the spraying section, about tack ragging and degreasing so I'm keeping that in mind too)

[RST]

If it were me: Do the upturned hull in white with no masking.  Then mark the WL and mask off from below, cover the whole hull. Spray a bit of white on the mask line again to seal it then when dry go over with blue top coat. Remove tape before it's set hard to reduce chance of a sharp ragged edge.


I'd echo the use of scotch brites and tac rags. I sand wet (water plus soap) with no problems. I don't have space or appropriate PPE to wet sand using panel wipe (that was a new one for me reading that pinned message).


You may find it easier to mask-off from below the waterline than above anyway because of the curvature.  Try it yourself to see.


I'm not such a huge fan of Halfords paints recently. They take an absolute age to dry sometimes, not always so can be a bit unpredictable.  Leave plenty of time before touching the hull or laying it back upright.

[NoNuFink]

Beware Halfords white primer

https://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,49010.msg539654.html#msg539654