masking techniques

[speeddemon92]

hi all, i was wondering what masking techniques/ masking matirials you guys used. you all seem to get seamless paint jobs, no ridge between paints on bodies and smaler parts, who do you do it? do you use masking fluid? or just tape?how much time do you leave before removing tape when using acriyics/laquers? and also how do you mask/paint fiddly bits like dashboards or brake discs? any how do you on difficult angles, like the side pod of the jordan 191 or the the rear wing of the 2004 subary imprezza? any repiles would be greatly useful, thank you.

[stevenoble]

Tamiya masking tape.When you need to curve it (like your Jordan sidepod) Use a steel ruler and a scalpel put the tape onto a cutting mat and cut it down to about 1mm-2mm.You will find it will bend very easily around curves and corners if you do this.I usually leave at least 20-30 mins before removing tape after painting sometimes longer (it depends on the paint) Too soon you will end up with a uneven edge,too late and the paint can be brittle and you'll get an uneven edge.Get some Micromesh 6000,8000,12000 sanding cloths and you can very gently sand the ridge between 2 colours to lessen it.

[klutz_100]

I use liquid masking (Humbrol) all the time for fiddly things. Irreplaceable stuff IMO

[cyberkid]

After reading a thread here, I've been using blu-tac for hard to read places. IE: chassis, molded on engines etc etc.
It cuts masking time in half.
As for the ridge when obvious ... I clear it and then sand the area where the 2 colors meet and then clear again.

For straight lines, tamiya masking tape. I use 40mm most of the time, cutting it into suitable size. I like the 40mm because it's thinner, giving me better control of the tape and being able to somewhat see what is being masked off.

For anything that is under 3mm I use Aizu Project Micron masking tape. It comes in : 0.4, 0.7, 1.0, 1.5, 2.5 mm sizes. Can be found here.

I personally don't have much luck with liquid masks. They somehow don't like me

HTH,
Steve

[wouter1981]

For most of the time, tamiya tape is good enough, but for special things, curved features.. i use Bare metal foil...