I was getting reloaded at Walmart (has ten cars and three planes, testor sprays and square bottles) and was getting more blue tape. The guy showed me a new product called frog tape, three bucks more, but guarantees no bleed through and clean lines. Anyone try this stuff?
I’ve used it and got the best masked edge I have ever gotten. As with all tapes I use I will use an edge that I cut with a sharp blade and a straight edge. Never use the factory edge.
Results on a very “not flat” surface
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I’ve noticed that instructions on the tape seem to specify use with latex, or water-based paint. Has anyone used this product with enamel, (or “oil-based” paint as we old painters would say)? Inquiring minds want to know…
Gary
I’ve seen it at Hobby Lobby. If you have one nearby, use the 40% off coupon.
I believe it needs to be used with a water-based tape in order to activate its edge sealing properties.
I’ve masked semi-transparent oil-based wood finishes with this stuff and the result was a perfect demarcation line on oak and hemlock. There are two types - the green stuff and the yellow version, which is a lower tack.
Frog Ta****pe !!!
I purchased some Frog Tape, and in the spirit of risk avoidance (ShurTech Brands, LLC, would not admit to ever allowing acrylics and Frog Tape to touch; were they afraid of spontaneous combustion?), I ran a Consumers Report-type 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!
I concur-I only use blue painter’s tape for large areas. I use Frogtape for all of my fine and detail masking.
Noah,
Sound like this “frog tape” brand tape (please read the rest of the posts here) is the way to go for detail masking! I will try to find some my next trip to the hobby shop. Say, where is that Walmart that has kits and supplies located ??? My local Walmart (and several others in the Chicago area I have checked in the last few years) has dropped all model kits and supplies … not like the “old days”!!
FreedomEagle1953
I tried some & found it worked fine, but runs about twice the price of the “Painters Mate Green” tape that I already use, and haven’t had any problems with.
I’ve tried this Frog tape and here’s my $.02… it’s thicker than 3M’s blue painter’s tape, it seems to be tackier (more sticky) than the blue tape and it cuts exceedingly well with a new #11 blade.
For demarcation masking, it is great on level and smooth surfaces but not at all good at snugging down on details like Tamiya’s yellow tape.
Given its tackiness, I was leery of using it without first putting it down on a wooden cutting board and then onto the model- this removed some of the sticky and I was able to mask with it without it pulling up any paint.
It has its place on the work bench alongside the blue and yellow tapes, but it doesn’t really replace either one entirely.
Yea, I’ve had good luck w. it too. Haven’t tried the yellow, but the green hasn’t pulled any paint off.
Responding to an old post, but I was interested as well in Frog Tape. I tried it on some acrylic paint that has cured for about 12 hours and paint that has cured for about two days. It worked beautifully on both. It needs to be pressed into panel lines, but otherwise, survived even heavy coats of Model Master acrylic paint I put down just to see how the tape would react.
Thanks for the tip, good stuff.
I thought I was sold on using Frog Tape after reading these posts, so I whole-heartedly went and bought some. I masked off some white (acrylic), and proceededto spray some enamel over it. It must have done the worst job of sealing that I have yet seen. Up to this point, my experience with it is NOT good.
I compared the yellow frog tape to the really expensive Tamiya masking tape sold at my LHS and to me they are almost identical. I’m using it for all my intricate masking and I use the blue 3M painters tape to cover the larger areas. I have only been air brushing over it, no painting over it right from the bottle. so not sure how the edge reacts to that kind of painting.
John
Sounds like good stuff,must try it for some house painting also
On the advice of the guy at Home Depot I tried it when painting our bedroom. The guy swore up and down that Frog tape rendered obsolete the method I had planned on using - blue painter’s tape + caulk along the edges. Got it home masked the ceiling and painted…Stuff bled like a Dexter episode. It may work great for modelling but it downright sucked when I tried using it for home painting. Ended up going back to the blue tape/caulk method I’ve always used.
Something to check out.
3M makes a line of masking tape for use on cars. It comes in different widths, like Tamiya. Wouldn’t surprise me if 3M made the Tamiya tape. I’ve seen it at O’Reilly’s.
It does not work with enamel- the sealant is activated by water.