Tips on how to foil curved/round areas please

Hey guys. I'm currently building my first ride that will have BMF on it. I've actually started the foiling and, with my beginner skills with this product, it's coming out very nicely so far except I sort of got stuck. I want to apply a long, thin strip of foil around the fenders of the car. Can anyone suggest how I can do this? The only thing that crosses my mind is putting some strips of Tamiya tape over the fender (i only have medium sized tape right now), tracing the fender, peeling off the tape, cutting the tape around the area that was traced, putting the tape back on, applying a big square of bare metal foil to cover the tape and exposed fender and finally cutting the foil as needed. Is there any other better ways of doing this sort of task? Any suggestions are very much appreciated and thanks for your time guys :thumbsup:

No suggestion is going to be nearly as usefull as trial and error. BMF really just takes practice. It's not hard to master, but until you've played with it you really won't be able to tell what you can do it and how to go about it. Give it a try- relax, learn, and enjoy. It's cheap enough to make mistakes while you experiment. (Per square unit of coverage, BMF is really one of the cheapest finishing media you can find in this hobby.)

Does the fender area that you want to apply the foil to have molded on trim? If so, and assuming it's the molded trim that you want to be chrome:

example: is this what you want to accomplish?
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y197/justdande/Completed%20Model%20Cars/1969%20Camaro%20Convertible/000_0750.jpg

Apply the foil as a large enough piece to more than cover the molded trim, burnish the foil down nice and snug working it into all of the corners and crevices then with very light pressure and a very sharp (new) #11 blade trim along the molded surface and peel away the excess foil. This should leave foil on the area that you wish to have covered. Last, using a soft cloth, go over the foil again to make sure the cut edge is pressed down nice and smooth.

Be careful, there is always a risk of the knife slipping and cutting into your paint but this is a risk that comes along with the use of BMF. Practice will make you feel more comfortable with it and little mishaps will happen less often over time.

Yeah thats exactly what I want to do mach1. I applied some foil along the bottom sides of the car like the early 80s Oldsmobile Cutlass, Buick Regals, and late 70s Monte Carlo. Im actually doing the Trumpeter 78 Monte Carlo. It has some strips of chrome that you apply on the bottom of the door and along the sides of the car, but I added some 5mm wide foil strips underneath and wanted to add thin foil around the fender like the picture you provided. I'm going to give that a shot. Thanks for your time MPWR and mach1.

I haven't tried this yet, but I recently saw a message on another forum that suggested outlining the area to be foiled with masking tape. Then he puts BMF over the area, including the edges of the tape, burnishes it down tightly, and then follows that tape edge with the knife, using it as a guide for cutting the BMF. Seems like 3M Blue Line tape would be good for this, since it's got an even, fairly thick edge. That might reduce the chances of the knife slipping.

Auto parts store chrome tape is thicker than BMF, so it doesn't follow contours so precisely. I've found it useful to smooth over rough areas. Doesn't sound like what you need, but...?

Didy

The way I go about doing trim like that is much the same way the 1:1 auto maufacturer would do it.

I take a thin strip of foil, start at one end of the fender moulding (the chrome strip around the wheel house opening) and work it around the fender carefully as not to tear the foil. then I burnish and trim the foil. This method creates less waste, and if you get good at it, you won't even need to trim the foil!

Yeah I'm trying this right now except i'm using Tamiya tape so its still a little hard to trace the foil once it's on the model and tape. After I trace the foil I used one of Mr. Hobby's q-tips and the flat end of a tooth pick to smooth down the foil and then slowly peel off the tape pulling off the excess foil, and then use the q-tip once more to smooth the foil down. I've done one side of the car and will finish the other tonight. I'm applying some of the microscale micro metal foil adhesive so the foil sticks better cause the foil can easily move around or torn when its that thin. Thanks for taking some of your time to contribute to my thread guys.