Masking

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Painting and airbrushing
1

I’m masking a scalloped edge on the bottom of a cannon tube. I used regular masking tape and it pulled my base coat off in spots. The base is acryllic, but I only let it cure about 2 hours before masking. Did I mask too soon or should I stick my tape to some garmet or something before sticking it to the model? Or is there something else I should be using? [:I]

2

Acrylic is very easy to pull up. It doesn’t bond to plastic very well, rather it tends to form a coating over it.

Four words of advice:

  1. Make certain the parts are perfectly clean of grease and oil. Any grease left over from the molding process will eliminate what tentative hold the acrylic has. Most people use soap and water, I prefer to use alcohol.

  2. Priming with enamel primer will virtually eliminate any pulling up of acrylics. I like Tamiya primer in rattle cans since I can take the parts outside to prime them.

  3. Use low-tack masking tape. I like Tamiya tape personally.

  4. Depending on the humidity and temparature, 2 hours is very, very marginal for acrylics. Let them dry at least 12 hours and 24 is better. Acrylics dry much faster than enamel, but they don’t completely cure in 2 hours.

3

Thanks Scott, your advice sounds completely reasonable and I’ll put it into practise. Thanks again.

4

You are very welcome. Hope it helps.

Priming the parts seems to be the real key. I’ve had acrylics come up to, but so far never on parts that were properly primed. I use a light coat of Tamiya Fine Surface Primer and it seems to do a very good job of keeping acrylic in place.

5

Hey…funny you should post this, as I had just posted a similar one!! I had the exact same problems with acrylick paint, even after washing, priming, and letting the first colour dry overnight. I was using Frisket paper, and it pulled lots up. I just tried with low-tack masking tape (green), after sticking it to my hand a few times to eliminate some of the tack.
It worked perfectly. None came up (I removed it after applying each coat, and was able to restick it for the next coat!!! Beautiful!!
Hope it helps…good luck!
Sammy

6

Thanks for the advice Sammy. That’s a beautiful paint job on the Hornet.