Masking Methods

[Mackem]

Hi All,

I'm loosing patience with my airbrush. The problem is trying to get a 'hard' edge on cammo patterns. No matter what I do I get some degree of overspray, or even worse the paint 'bleeds' under the masking tape.

Is there a nice & easy but effective way of masking off that allows for the hard edge but doesn't allow the paint to bleed onto areas where it isn't wanted?

Thanks in advance
John

[oz]

one method i use is blu-tack, roll it into a ball to get it soft then roll it out into long strips' on something like a mirror then place it where you want on your model gentley press it down and start spraying.

oz.

[Saxondog]

Oz,have you ever used the 3M GREEN PAINTERS MASKING TAPE? On the water lines on my ship models it is always perfect,this tape is used in the automotive paint shops for pin-stripping when applied correctly paint will not bleed through.I was thinking of trying it on the Jagdpanther.BLU-TACK is not a product I'm familiar with where can I get some,is it like putty?John I am having the same issues as you and it is frustrating. Sax

[oz]

hi john / sax.

the problem with tape is getting it to curve or bend into tight shapes, i photo edited these pics to give you an idea of what to do.

first roll out the blu-tack into strips and put it onto the model in the shape you want' like this.


next place a piece of paper onto the blue tack and draw the blu-tack shape onto the paper, take the paper of and cut out the shape along the line you just drawn, the red part of the paper you can throw away.




reattach the paper like so.



spray the camo color you want, then remove the paper and you will have a hard edge, although the model was sprayed freehanded you should get the idea, the reason for the paper is so you don't get any over-spray.



heres a link to where you can get blu-tack from.................cheers oz.

[oz]

as for the paint bleeding under the tape its one of three things.

1, paint is to thin, add less thinners.

2, pressure is to high. drop the pressure by 5 and respray.

3, you are spraying to close to the model, move the air-brush away by about 6 inches and respray.

cheers oz.

[JTS]

HI Oz


That is such an easy yet clever way of masking!

You give inspiration to us all



Jim

[STEINER]

Another great tutorial Oz. Could you use this method to paint those KTs with the Ardenne type camo scheme


Thanks for posting.

[oz]

this method is perfect for doing the tiger II scheme thats what i use it for' and the finish is perfect, you can even make small balls of blu-tack stick them on the model then mask and spray everything up, when you take all the blu-tack off including the little balls what you have left is the camo with the ambush dots applied.

cheers oz.

[STEINER]

Another brilliant tip.

Cheers Oz

STEINER

[oz]

the pic isn't very good but i used the blu-tack and paper masking method on this tiger II, this was my first attempt i did it several years ago and for a first attempt it came out OK.



cheers oz.