Does anybody have any tips for using Microscale Micro Mask? I just used it for the first time to touch up a camo paint job that I was too lazy to mask over again. Afterwards I spent more time trying to get the Micro Mask off and touching up areas where the paint lifted that it would have been better to just have re-masked with tape…
Should I have put down a gloss coat before using the Micro Mask? Would that help it come off easier as well as keeping the paint underneath from lifting? I used Tamiya’s fine gray primer before painting (MM and Vallejo acrylics). Usually I have no problem with paint lifting after using the primer underneath.
Any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated - this is one more tool I’d like to learn to use to add to my arsenal of techniques. Thanks!
You pretty much answered your own question. That stuff it very hard to get off a flat paint surface so the extra step of a gloss coat would help. I don’t use that much any more but when I did It was mostly on canopies. Most of the time i used it as a convenient way to fill in an area where the edge was masked with very thin strips of tape. Magic Mask is better over flat paint. It is more rubbery and pulls off a bit better.
I can agree with wing_nut. I haven’t used MicroMask for major masking projects for years. It is perverse enough to pull off underlying paint, and stubborn enough not to come off other areas–and I don’t have any idea why. And I use enamels.
I still use it sometimes to mask a wheel, then paint the hubs. Often, it will take the paint off with it in some spots on the wheel, and stick tenaciously in the area where wheel meets hub. It seems particularly difficult to remove when I’ve painted silver over it (for hubs) and let it dry overnight.
I do always wash pieces in detergent, so mold release lubrication shouldn’t have been a problem. I’ve also tried an overlying gloss coat, with mixed results.
Scrubbing with a toothbrush and hot water does not move it. In some cases, I’ve soaked the piece in water and even window cleaning solution overnight–and it is still there the next day.
One thing I did have some success with recently for the Sptifire GB, was to remove it as soon as the paint was dry to the touch, maybe 1 to 2 hours. This worked better–on one of the three Spitfires I built. The other two I ended up stripping the paint, then painting the hub first,with airbrush, and finishing the tires by hand with acrylic craft paint I happened to have on hand.
If anyone else has ideas how to get this stuff to work consistently and reliably, I’d like to hear it to.