Masking/Air Brushing

I have used everything from drafting tape to Silly Putty (no, really, it works great). It really all depends what you are trying to mask. Is it going to be a hard edge or a soft edge? If its a hard edge, just cut some drafting tape to the right size, take some of the tackiness out by sticking it to the palm of your hand and put on the model. Soft edges are a little tougher. the edge of the mask needs to stay off contact from the model so some of the paint sprays under it to give the soft line. This is where I like to use Silly Putty. Just take a piece of putty, roll it into a rope and place on the model. It makes laying out the curves of the camo pattern easier and it goes right over compuond curves. Since the "rope" is rounded you automatically get the slight overspray that forms a nice soft edge. After laying out the mask I just flatten out more pieces of the putty to mask the rest of the model and since silly putty is synthetic, it doesn't leave any residue. I can generally use the putty 3 times before the chemicals in the paint make the putty too hard to use.

Another easy way to mask is to blow up the painting instuction sheet to the same sizes as the model, then cut out the masks and place on the kit.

Hope this helps.

In 1/48 scale and larger most people would freehand the camo patterns. If you are building 1/72 scale then you could either cut camo patterns out of paper like recipe cards and hold it a short distance from the model to obtain a semi-soft demarcation line, or some people make a pattern from the camo reference photos, cut them out, and use a piece of tape doubled over to hold each pattern on the model in their respective positions. The doubled over tape keeps the pattern an 1/8" or so off the surface to create a demarcation line that is not as sharp as it would have been had you used masking tape. Some people also use Parafilm rolled over and stuck to the model along the lines you choose for the camo. There are lots of ways as you can see.

I hope this helps.

Mike

thank you!!