Painting Transparent Huey Rotors

Painting Transparent Huey Rotors by James Brown The obvious problem with modelling a helicopter in flight is the question of how to deal with the rotors. Many modellers will be perfectly content with simple static blades, leaving the rest to their imagination. Others will prefer to try to emulate the look of photographs, where all that is usually visible of moving rotors is a vague dark smudge. It is impossible to exactly reproduce this visual effect on a static model, but with a bit of time and effort you can come reasonably close using the clear plastic pieces included with your Huey models. Below are a few different options you can try, depending on the equipment and materials available to you. All of these methods will require spraying paint on to the clear rotor parts, as the glossy plastic will accept brushed-on paint very poorly. Obviously an airbrush is ideal for this, but spray paint from a ‘rattle can’ will work fine as well, albeit with less control.

If you decide to use a spray can, spray from further away than normal – probably around 40-50cm, but you will want to experiment. You are aiming for a very light, dusty ‘mist coat’. Move the spray across the piece from one side to the other, letting the paint drift on to it. Build the paint up slowly with several light passes until you are happy with the coverage. Remember, you can always put more on, but it is more difficult to take it off, and you certainly don’t want your rotor to end up looking like a solid black bowtie. Whether using an airbrush or a spray can, you will absolutely want to practise your technique on a piece of paper first. You only need to paint one side of the plastic, obviously, and it is a good idea to leave the protective paper on the other side until after painting. This will protect the non-painted surface from paint, dirt and scratches during the painting process. It also allows you to Blu-Tack the rotor to a suitable handle, saving you from having to touch it too much.

The plastic must be as clean as possible prior to painting, as grease will resist the paint, showing up any fingerprints like something out of CSI. So wiping the surface with rubbing alcohol or window cleaner is highly recommended.

The Main Rotor Option 1 A very basic option is to give the rotors an overall dusting of black paint, suggesting the fuzzy smudge of whirring rotors in a relatively long-exposure photograph.

Ideally, you will want the rotor to be a little darker in the centre, where the blades are not travelling as quickly. This is fairly easy to achieve with either an airbrush or a spray can.

Option 2 If you want to include visible blades, as is very common in slightly higher-speed photographs, you will need to use masking. First of all, you will need to decide whether to paint the top or bottom surface of your rotor. The top makes the most sense to me, as the bottom is more likely to scratch against scenery and other models during gaming, but your opinion may differ.

1. Huey rotors spin anti-clockwise. So, assuming you are painting the top surface, the leading edge of the blades runs from the bottom left to the top right, with the ‘bowtie’ held lengthwise. Mask off most of the bowtie, leaving a 6mm strip exposed. You can use masking tape for this, but another very simple option is to use the protective paper as a mask – just use a ruler and a sharp craft knife to carefully cut away the 6mm strip. Only use very gentle downward pressure – you don’t want to scribe a line into the plastic if you can help it.

2. Spray on a thin, translucent coat of black. This is essentially the same method as option 1 above, but you will probably want a rather heavier, more opaque coverage, to resemble the spinning rotor blades themselves. Bear in mind that the area will receive one more light dusting in the final step. Again, the result will be more convincing if the centre is a little darker than then edges.

3. Remove the mask, taking care not to scratch off any paint.

4. Apply a very light overall spray, similar to Option 1, but perhaps even lighter. This is entirely optional – perhaps you prefer the look of the translucent black blades alone, without the hazy trail.

Option 3 The final option is very much like the previous method, but with slightly more complicated masking, as it includes the yellow safety paint at the end of the blades. 1. The only difficult part of this method is cutting a curved mask at the tip of the blades. If you have a steady hand, you could try to do this freehand, with a sharp craft knife, following the edge of the plastic as a guide. An easier option is to use a compass cutter. Again, press lightly, trying not to scratch into the plastic.

2. For the next step, we have a choice as to how to proceed. The simplest method is to follow the same steps as Option 2 above, cutting a 6mm strip from the leading edge of the blade, then peeling it away carefully, leaving only the curves at the end of the blades masked. This method will save some time, but take extra care when peeling off the sections of protective paper. You will need to use the tip of a craft knife to lift a corner of the paper first, and it would be very easy to slip and scratch the paint you have just applied. The slightly more involved alternative is to use masking tape (as pictured below) to neatly delineate the rotor blade. As well as being easier to remove after painting, tape can be repositioned until you are happy with its placement.

Before spraying, you need to cover every part of the piece you don’t want the paint to touch. Post-It notes are very handy for this. Follow the painting steps in Option 2.

3. Remove the paper from the blade tips. It would be great if you could reposition the small curve of paper, to help mask off the inner part of the blades. But in practice the paper tends to curl, and is difficult to handle. So I recommend using tape instead, which you will need to cut to shape, preferably using a compass cutter again. As with the previous step, you need to carefully cover all parts which aren’t to be painted. 4. Very lightly spray the blade tips yellow. You could spray the whole blade-tip curve in one go, but I think it is worth taking the extra time to mask off the ‘blade’ tips and spray in two stages, so the opacity of the yellow matches the black.

Tip: When gluing together your rotor assembly after painting, try to use Superglue as sparingly as possible, as using too much glue can cause an unsightly white frosting effect.

The Tail Rotor Option 1 As with the main rotor, the first and simplest option is a light overall dusting of black. An airbrush will allow you to make the centre of the circle a little darker, while a spray can’s coverage is generally too broad for this.

Option 2 You will need an airbrush for this technique, as a spray can is too imprecise. The technique behind the fuzzy double-fan pattern is simple, but a little tricky, so you will definitely – I don’t think I can say this too often – practise on paper first. Spray gently, aiming for the centre of the circle, with the nozzle fairly close to the plastic. Then pull the nozzle away from the surface as you move out to the edge.

Option 3 Adding safety stripes to the tail rotor is certainly possible, but not without a great deal of fiddling around with masks or pre-cut circle templates. If you have a colour printer, a much easier option is to print this PDF on to a sheet of transparent acetate – the kind used for overhead-projector transparencies. Although OHPs are arguably well on the way to being considered obsolete, the transparencies are still readily available from most stationery suppliers. It is not much different to printing on paper, but read the instructions on the packaging carefully before you begin. There are two different types of transparency, one designed for inkjet printers and one for laser printers. MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE you use the right type of transparency for your printer – inkjet sheets can potentially melt if used in a laser printer, causing serious damage to the printer. Select a rotor image which you like the look of and carefully cut around the edge with scissors or a compass cutter. Make a small hole in the centre by twisting the point of a craft knife. You can use the transparent disc on its own, or in conjunction with the metal rotor piece – of course, you will need to paint matching safety stripes on the blades. Download the Tail Rotor Transparencies here...

IMPORTANT NOTE: The PDF is setup on an A4-sized piece of paper, which is different than the normal US Letter size (8 1/2" x 11"). It will still print on US Letter paper, just make sure that page-scaling is turned off, and you should be set for any sized paper! Most enamel or Alcohol-based acrylic airbrush paints, and just about any enamel or acrylic spray paint, will adhere quite well to the clear plastic, and be hardy enough to survive normal handling. Nevertheless, the paint finish will still be somewhat prone to scratching, so try to be careful. You may want to consider a coat of protective varnish, but it will definitely pay to test it first on an unwanted piece of clear plastic such as a spare blister to ensure that it doesn’t frost or just generally look unpleasant. Good luck and safe flying. ~ James