Need Help – Painting with masking tape

I need some tips with masking body paint.
I have a really short experience in this area and one of my next projects (the Benetton 188) uses 4 colours for the body without any decal for the transition between them.
It will use TS-8 (Italian Red), TS-16 (Yellow), TS-23 (Light Blue), TS-35 (Park Green).
How can I do a good paint job in this one (using Tamiya paint cans and masking tape) without having differences in the paint height and nice transitions between the colours?

Thanks.

I recently encountered the same problem with my YZF-R1. From my experience:

You need to mask off each section of the body separately in order to minimize the difference in paint heights (I call them ridges). You can't spray the entire body TS-8, then mask off the areas for the other colors separtely, etc. because the TS-8 will then be uneven with the rest of the paint. Try to use the same number of coats on each color section, too..

Another problem you might encounter is "bleeding" from one color to another. The best way to eliminate it is to mask off, then spray a coat of clear before the color coat. The clear will make sure that any color coat sprayed afterwards will not leak under the masking tape. Hope this helps

See bottom half of page:
http://www.interlog.com/~ask/scale/tips/rub/rub.htm
Great illustrations!

:)

What I usually do (taking a typical Marlboro Mclaren as example):-
Paint the main colour as you would do on a one colour model (in my case the Pure White)
wait a week
Mask off and then spray the next colour (forescent red)
wait a week
gently cut back the paint (I use Novex) this eliminate the 'ridge' from the second colour) You have to be carefull expecially if your going to do other colour as you may rub away too much paint.
When clear coat is applied after, it should look really smooth.

I made the same kit a few years ago but I spayed all the colours one after the other then cut back the ridges, it didnt look too bad the only thing that ruined it was the clear coat i applied afterwards which made some if the colour bleed through - probably due to me applying to much in one go.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll make another master-piece

Thanks a lot for your tips daggerlee.
In fact I was thinking of give and overall TS-16 (since it is the lighter colour) and continue till the darkest of them. Your approach will give some more work but for sure I’ll get the finish paint job I’m seeking.
One more suggestion, the body comes in a green colour. Do you think is better do give an overall thin white primer coat and then one more coat of primer and 2 our 3 of paint for every section our just start working in the sections.
One more thing, is better to leave the tape wile applying all coats our should I make a new mask for every new coat?

Again thank you for our help.

Thank you also jay@af and Del-R. :)
I have this one in my waiting list for many years because I didn’t have the skills to build it.
Since this is one “out of production” model by Tamiya I’m trying everything just to make it right.

One more suggestion, the body comes in a green colour. Do you think is better do give an overall thin white primer coat and then one more coat of primer and 2 our 3 of paint for every section our just start working in the sections.
One more thing, is better to leave the tape wile applying all coats our should I make a new mask for every new coat?


I think you should primer the entire car white and spray from there. You should definitely leave the tape on for coats of the same color, however after you're finished spraying one color, you shouldn't leave the masking tape on too long or it might tear.

Also, take a look at jay's website. The approach of applying a thick layer of clearcoat seems to me to be a lot more risk-free than my approach. I particularly like this picture:

http://www.interlog.com/~ask/scale/tips/rub/de12.gif