Just curious…what do the members here recommend as the best tape for masking?
Cheers,Douglas
Tamiya, Tamiya & Tamiya - It’s not the cheapest, but it’s nice & thin which helps prevent paint build up on the edges & the tack is spot on for modelling purposes.
I agree with Milairjunkie. I swear by the Tamiya Masking tape. No bleeds and yet low tack.
I use 3m blue painter’s tape. A lot cheaper and it is low tack. I cut it to the size I need.
I use Tamiya for delicate work and edges,but I use brown freezer tape for filling in and overall coverage.
Definitely Tamiya tape. I also use 3m blue but, with caution as it is not as low tack as Tamiya and from experience it will remove paint and decals. If you do use 3m blue stick it on and off your hand or some other surface a few times to reduce the tackiness. I also suggest Port-it notes for covering large areas.
Joe
Oops, I meant Post-it notes
I use regular masking tape that you can get from Walmart for less than a dollar. I haven’t had any problems with pulling paint up, and if I’m worried about too much tack, I stick it on the back of my hand a couple of times to get some body oil on it. I used it for these markings:
tamiya for me.
Tamiya, and I seal the edges with Future using a small brush to prevent paint bleed-under. Usually works fine, but at times I have managed to pull up paint and decals with Tamiya tape.
My experience is less extensive than most on the forum, but so far I love Tamiya tape. I use it for the edges, but I’ll use the blue stuff to fill in larger areas. I’ve gotten nothing but nice, clean edges with the Tamiya. I have not tried masking over decals, so can’t speak to that.
Another vote for Tamiya from me.
Stoutfella, if you are talking about masking over decals that have not been sealed, i would advise caution. I had two ruined doing that with Tamiya tape. They were on an Alclad surface so not sure if that made a difference.
I am another fan of the Tamiya tape for the fine edges, but use the blue stuff for larger areas. Tamiya also seems to be more flexible for going around curves and other odd surface details.
As far as decals go, if I am going to have to mask and paint after I have decaled the model, I spray a coat of Future over all the decals to keep them on. If not, Tamiya does tend to lift them from the model.
I primarily use Tamiya tape. For larger surfaces I use Kipps yellow painter tape. And small details with 1mm wide tape.
Frog Ta****pe !!!
I purchased some Frog Tape (delicate surface), and in the spirit of ShurTech Brands’ risk avoidance, I ran a Consumers Reports-style torture test:
I cut some tape into sawtoothed masks and applied it to unpainted plastic, lacquer-primed plastic, and (as a nod to the product’s origins: painting wallboard) raw card stock. I pre-wetted (just running a wet brush around the sawtooth edges) half of my samples.
I brush painted all the surfaces in two colors (a thin, flat yellow vs. a textured “rust”) of acrylic plus one (Pactra RC83 Polycarb Fluorescent Racing Red, flammable, contains ketones and other nasty stuff) chosen to “punish” the tape.
The day after the first coat dried, I put down a second strip of Frog Tape at right angles to the first layer of flat paint to see if the adhesion would tear-up the base coat. (I can’t think of any reason anyone would do this normally, but I wanted a torture test.) I painted over the second mask and let the whole mess dry thoroughly.
Now what DIDN’T I do? I didn’t run my test masking a compound curve. I didn’t do any spray enamel or airbrush work. And (BIGGIE!) I didn’t test any other masking medium.
The results: The tape came off easily and almost pristine! The worst was the wetted tape on raw plastic (my aggressive brushstrokes got under one of the sawtooth edges) and that was still much better than the last time I masked a straight line. The dry and wetted tape on lacquer produced indistinguishable, top-of-the-line results.
The real surprise was the rusty glop on card stock; I’d expected a broken line, and what I got was laser-straight, clean where I’d masked, ugly as homemade sin where I didn’t.
And in the adhesion tests there was no pull-up. This stuff is GREAT!
Thanks everyone for your responses.Looks like I’ll be ordering some Tamiya tape!
Cheers,Douglas
I must’ve gotten a crap roll of Tamiya tape! The stuff won’t stick, and moves around while applying it. Then, after you have it where you want it, and go around it to burnish the painted edge, it’ll pull up.
I use blue painter’s tape with pretty good success. I’ve started using the light green automotive painter’s tape and am really liking it, so far.
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
I use a combo of Tamiya for the outline and cheapie or 3m blue for the fill in. Also have used small sections of aluminum foils,…moistened paper towels or facial tissue
I like the Tamiya tape for the fine areas, but it’s too expensive for masking large areas… Better to use both it and your favorite masking tape (to include the blue painter’s tape)… I too use Post-It notes as well, especially for masking individual panels on NMFs and to mask over decals…
I’m not usually big on expensive name brand stuff, but in this case I agree with the other guys. Tamiya tape is the best. I like it because it is flexible. You can form it around details and around corners.
For bigger sections and fill-in, I use Yellow CP 60 Shurtape “Razors Edge”