Miracle Paint Masks

1/48 scale

Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

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For those of you who are not familiar with them, Miracle Paint Masks is a new company out of the United Kingdom.  The company was formed and is run by Mal Mayfield who himself is quite an established modeller.

I’m sure that most of us have toyed with the idea of painting the markings on our models at some time or other so as to achieve the “painted on” look rather than using decals.  This is especially so if you are a fan of natural metal finish aircraft so you can avoid the “halo” that is the carrier film that surrounds each decal and shows up delightfully on your simulated natural metal finish.

Whilst the end product is very satisfying indeed achieving it is another matter.  That is where these new masks from Miracle Paint Masks come in. 

Miracle Paint Masks have just been released onto the market and whilst painting masks are not new to the world of scale modelling by any means Mal’s new product has certainly made the process a whole lot easier.

The medium that he uses for his masks is blue in colour and very much like frisket film used by old-day technical illustrators but it is very, very much thinner and a whole lot more user friendly as far as I am concerned.  A major benefit is that it is transparent so that you can see where you are applying the mask in relation to the surrounding area and what you are applying it over.  Further benefits are that they are low tack and re-usable.

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At this time, the available range is confined to 1/48, 1/32 and 1/24 scale only and include:

• RAF type “A” roundels in 25", 30", 32", 35, " 40, " 45 and 50"

• RAF type “A1” roundels in 35", 49", and 56"

• RAF type “B” roundels in 25", 35", 40", 49", 54", 56", 63", and 102",

• RAF type “C” roundels in 32", 56", 63", and 102"

• RAF type “C1” roundels in 36"and 60"

• RAF type “D” roundels in 36", and 48"

• RAF type “A”, “C”,”D” and “A” – Full fin flashes

• RAF codes (three alphabets per 1/48 scale sheets, two on 1/32 and 1/24 scale sheets) in standard and alternative 24", standard and alternative 30"

• Luftwaffe. The only Luftwaffe set available to date is for the 1/48 scale Monogram "Promodeler" kit of the Dornier Do 217E-5 and four sets all of the kit’s main markings are provided. With regard to this set. I understand that it was originally a custom order requested by a modeller and is now being offered to the general modelling community as a part of Mal’s range.

Mal advises that he is presently drawing up more Luftwaffe codes (both letters and numerals) and will be offering sets of Balkenkruz markings with a choice of codes as per customer requests.

Development work is also being done towards providing USAAF markings but only basic “stars and bars” national markings are available to date.  Fans of the Republic
P-47 will be in for a treat too as well as masks for their chequered cowlings are in the pot too.

For the Braille scale fans, I understand that Mal is currently looking at expanding the range to include 1/72 scale too but the small size of the red centres in RAF roundels in this scale are proving difficult to produce and as with the Luftwaffe and USAAF sets, the development work is on-going.

Full, comprehensive and step by step instructions on how to use the masks are included in each set via an A-4 sized page and I have included a scan of one of these sheets to illustrate this.  Each of the RAF roundel and fin flash and code/numeral sets also includes a further A-4 sized sheet that provide notes on the shades of the colours used in these markings with matches to the British Standard (BS 381C) and U.S. Federal Standard (FS 595B) specifications.

Further assistance on using the masks is provided on their website at http://www.freewebs.com/miraclemasks/index.htm .  The website also lists and illustrates all of their range and includes a forum so you can contact Mal with any queries and requests for custom masking sets (which Mal so quaintly terms “bespoke”).  If you are after a bespoke set all you need to provide Mal with is a set of decent references and he can produce any marking as a mask set.  He will get the mask set to you as soon as possible but does ask is that he be given plenty of lead time so as not to leave you waiting for delivery for too long.

These are a well produced, packaged and easy to use set of products indeed which, should you wish to dip your toe into the world of painted-on markings, will make your experience a whole lot more pleasant.

Recommended.

As mentioned above, Miracle Paint Masks’ founder Mal Mayfield is himself a modeller and head on over to the Aeroscale Modelling Community website at
http://www.aeroscale.co.uk/user.php?op=userinfo&uname=Holdfast if you want to take a look at his work.

Recommended.

Thanks to Miracle Paint Masks for the review sample.

Review Copyright © 2008 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 21 January, 2008
Last updated 21 January, 2008

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