White glueing tabs on cardmodels

barry

Active Member
Hi All

As white shows up faults on folding in card models why do designers not colour the tabs to match the part where possible or make it a neutral colour. Not getting at you DN but I have just sat painting the tabs on Fuso gray, which will never quite match yours.

When NOBI produced the Fokker he even coloured the joining strips to match and it was a big help.

No I do not want to sit and recolour a kit thank you

barry
 

shoki2000

Active Member
What I personally do is to cut out all the joining tabs and replace them with pieces of card glued on the inside to the part. This way I can achieve much better fit on the connection.
As to your question - I suppose it is just a custom to leave them white to stand out from the parts. However more and more designers color them to match the parts they supposed to be joining.
 

bfam4t6

Member
I agree it can be quite a pain in the rear trying to match colors and then having to color all the white tabs and connecting strips. I believe Halinski is pre-coloring all of their newer kits, including the F6F-3 Hellcat for sure. I guess the reason everyone doesn't is just to cleary define what areas are not to be shown and maybe to save ink? :? As far as the definining of where a part goes I think they could just color it in to match and then in a very contrasting color like red or yellow write in small font which piece goes there. And as far as ink add a buck and save me some time :D

Then again it does almost give me satisfaction knowing that I kinda colored the kit myself. :lol:
 
Interesting sugesting, but then I in all my building I really do prefer to use a backing piece with no tab. Another idea combining both might be to use similiarlily colored backing pieces
 

barry

Active Member
Hi Roman

I was colouring the hull tabs under the casement guns and the tabs glued to the deck under "X" gun and when I get to it the tabs on the deck under the main tower.

everthing else I cut off anyway but these ones I think will be better as printed and done as you suggest.

Having great fun building it anyway.

regards

barry
 

Jim Krauzlis

Active Member
I agree with Mark, tabs sometimes add thickness that just doesn't permit a flush joint and requires extra work, so I try, where possible, to replace them with a piece of card that lets the joint fit more snug, leaving only the edge of the piece to be colored, if at all. I find that particularly true in rolling tubes out of card, the tabs prevent the edges from fitting tight and flush, so I remove then and add a piece of thin paper on the inside of the joint to permit the edges of the piece to meet, rather than ending up with a noticeable seam.

Color matching is a quirky thing because the paint changes color as it dries, but I think you'll find once the piece is done it will be hard to notice the difference really, if at all, unless you colored a large area.

Jim
 

jrts

Active Member
Hi all

I always cut tabs off and use bits of card or paper. Gives a much better fit and flush finish.

Regards

Rob
 
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