I’m painting a Minicraft 727 for the coordinator of my university’s aviation program in a custom livery. I’ve been having this problem for the longest time, and it’s frustrated me so much this time around, i want to get some answers. Anyways…whether I use a rattle can or an airbrush, when I mask and paint seperate areas, I end up getting these ridges of where the masking tape was. How does this happen, how can it be prevented, and how do I cure it on this model that I’m working on now? I’ve had to remask and repaint the areas at least twice because I try to sand the ridges away to even the paint out. Can some one help a guy out who’s trying to finish this up in a week or so?
I am having some airbrush problems myself I just posted about, but I used to have the same problem, especially with rattle cans. Very light coats built up fixed it for me, but only with my airbrush. Also, using good quality masking instead of thick tape helped me a lot. The paint will stick to the edge of the tape, so if its thick, it built up a thick ridge for me. I now use Para film or Tamiya tape, again, very light coats, with a Aztec airbrush. Hope that helps.
Remove the mask immediately after the last coat of paint has become tacky. Any ridge that has formed will then shrink down to the surface and disappear provided that you have applied light coats.
Yup… Never leave the mask in place after it’s been squirted…
Another option: If you have for some reason left the mask on too long and now the paint is drying, take a new #11 blade and gently run it along side the mask to get a sharp edge (no pun intended) between the paint and the mask. When you lift, there will not any ‘pull’ on the paint to create a ragged edge.
Another thing you can do to minimise paint “ridging” on the demarcation line is to spray from the tape side of the line, angling into the open area being painted. Never spray directly into the masked edge from the “open” side. Apply light coats and build up your colour depth gradually.
Don’t sand! Use a polishing stick to ease down the demarcation line between the colors. Let the paint cure hard then use the stick along with a little water to wet polish it.
Light touch! Let the stick do the work.
Is Para film like friskit sheets? if where is a good place to find Para film? Is hobby only can it be find in hardware stores?
Thanks