Some questions about masking

When you guys paint the portions around the windows black (I'm not talking about the "glass", i mean the part on the body), what do you use keep the paint from getting onto your nicely polished body? I ask because I thought I had covered everything well enough with newspaper, but after I was done, I saw that some of the black had gotten onto the body. I hope I can polish it out, but how long should I wait before I do that? I guess I should just make sure I have everything, and I mean everything, covered up.

Make sure the paint is dry before you take the tape/newspaper off too.

Wouldn't it be easier just to paint it with a brush? That's all I do.

You can just use regular tape. Make sure it's not too sticky, otherwise it will peel the paint off. You gotta press around the edges with something flat and hard to make sure its completely attached to the paint.

Regular tape wont work as it will not seal correctly and wont leave a nice straight line. Leave's a jaggered line. It has a bad habit of bledding the paint under the tape as well.
Only use Tamiya tape as it will not bleed though and will leave a good finish.
As for masking the rest of the car.....if you spray the black you will have to take a lot more care to make sure you have everthing masked off.
If you brush it with enamal paint you can get just as good a finish if you do some nice light coats.

I guess I should say that I was using Tamiya masking tape, but I didn't want to waste it by covering everything else with it, so I used newspaper for the rest, but I didn't cover it from the bottom. The wind must have blown the paint underneath the paper. I guess have to cover it completely. I just thought there might be an easier way to do it.

Wouldn't it be easier just to paint it with a brush? That's all I do.
That's what I had done before. I agree it's easier, but I didn't like the results too much. It takes a lot of effort to make it straight. I think masking and using a spray gets you much cleaner results.

Originally posted by Max Power
I guess I should say that I was using Tamiya masking tape, but I didn't want to waste it by covering everything else with it, so I used newspaper for the rest, but I didn't cover it from the bottom. The wind must have blown the paint underneath the paper. I guess have to cover it completely. I just thought there might be an easier way to do it.



OK......What i do is use 6mm tape first then overlap half of it with 10mm tape. After that i use regular tape overlayed over the 10mm tape. Then use the paper and rugular tape to mask of the rest of the model.
Yes....you need to mask underneath it to.

If you don't want to use so much of the expensive Tamiya tape, then just use it to mask around the edges and cover the rest of the body a plastic bags, cut to your liking

That's what I had done before. I agree it's easier, but I didn't like the results too much. It takes a lot of effort to make it straight. I think masking and using a spray gets you much cleaner results.

It's easy with brush if you cut a good groove along window lines
If you use airbrush it helps too. Groove is a must!

http://www.tamiya.com/english/howto/car1/tip4_2.jpg

...cover the rest of the body a plastic bags...
Plastic bags! That's ingenious! I think i might try that next time.

It's easy with brush if you cut a good groove along window lines
The models I've done so far already have that groove and I'm still not satisfied with the brush results. I'm rather satisfied with what I got using masking tape and spraying it (other than the overspray, of course).

I use plastic bags, too. Usually cut-up grocery bags. :)