I did a review of Tru-Color Paints a while back, (http://web.ipmsusa3.org/content/tru-color-paints ) and I asked the guys at Tru-Color if I could do a review of their new Frisket Paper. They said OK, and I bought a 3-pack of the paper at our last IPMS Chapter meeting. I bought the 3-pack, because I thought I had a project which might need a couple of sheets, but not much more.

My project was a 1/144 Model Lancaster, which I wanted to convert from a Dam Buster to a Grand Slam carrier. RAF camouflage is usually quite difficult to do, or at least it’s a fairly long project.

I took the camouflage drawing from the instruction sheet. It wasn’t the same size as the model. I scanned the instruction, then put the scan in a graphics editing program (PhotoShop is popular, as is MS Paint GIMP, and Picasa). I resized the scan to match the size of the model. This allows me to print a top view of the aircraft camouflage.

My method previously was to print out the camouflage scheme to match the model. I then taped the paper to the bottom of a glass topped table, and put a lamp under the table. This allowed me to see the lines for the camouflage through the 40mm (1.5 inch) Tamiya tape which I stuck to the top of the table. I then cut the camo, following the lines as best I could. I would mark leading and trailing edges on the tape with a Sharpie to allow alignment. This worked pretty well, but it was pretty time consuming to get all of those pieces of tape attached to the model, then paint on the camouflage color. I would paint the lighter color first, overall, then mask and spray the darker color.

The Tru-Color Frisket Method

I did a 1/144 Lancaster. I painted the top of the plane brown, as it had the brown/green scheme.

I printed out the camouflage scheme on plain paper and checked the size. I then put a piece of the Frisket paper in the printer and printed the scheme again.

I sat down at my glass-top table with my trusty knives, and cut the brown areas out. Because the leading and trailing edges of the wings and the fuselage edges were already marked, it was easy to determine where the paper needed to go on the model. The whole cutting and masking process took about a half hour.

Once the masks were on, I airbrushed the model with the RAF dark green. After waiting about 10 minutes for the paint to dry, I removed the masks. I was very satisfied with how well the paper held the “hard edge” for the RAF camouflage.

I then put masking tape on the sides of the fuselage and the edges of the wings and horizontal stabilizers and painted the bottom of the Lancaster black. At this time I also painted the wheels, landing gear doors, landing gear legs and props and spinners.

For large 1/72, it would probably be necessary to print the wings and fuselage separately. This can be pretty easily done by selecting one wing in the graphics program and turning it 90 degrees, so it’s parallel with the fuselage. The other wing would be done the same way, so all 3 sections would fit on a single 8 X 10 inch Frisket.

I also have plans to do some smaller 1/144 planes, like Spitfires or FW-190s. There’s some “unused” space on the Frisket sheet I used for the Lancaster, and I can probably fit 3 or 4 more on the corners. Because I cut the sheet up to do the Lancaster, I’ll have to tape parts of the Frisket to a regular sheet of paper to run them through the printer. I do this with decals all the time, so it should work just fine.

Evaluation

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. The fact that I could put this product through a laser printer and get a mask in minutes is wonderful.

This product has already saved me a LOT of time on masking one plane. I plan to use it whenever there’s a project that requires a hard-edge mask with curved lines. I’ll probably have to buy the 10-pack soon, because it’s going to get some use here.

Thanks to Rick Galazzo and Scott Cohen, who run Tru-Color Paint, and to IPMS USA for the chance to review this neat product.