masking for paint.

bad, very bad. i usually freehand my cammo scemes. if i mask i have used silly putty, play dough, cut paper shapes and looped a piece of tape to hold the paper off the surface a little for fine soft edges. you can achieve fine soft edges with silly putty or play dough too. to free hand and get soft, fine edges, thin the paint very thin (70% thinner/30% paint). turn your air pressure down around 10 psi or lower if you can, work very close to the subject with the minimal amount of paint flow and build the color slowly. this takes patience but gives excellent results. if you have a double action brush it would work better for this technique, but you could probably tweak a single action into doing this for you as well. some people use only single action brushes for this hobby. i have both types and the single action brush collects dust since ive got the hang of the double action. hope this helps. later.

Masking tape works too. You want to get low tack masking tape. Tamiya masking tape is really good. 3M makes a masking tape very similar but in bulk.

The problem with liquid mask is that its going to be a mess peeling it off, and quit possibly you will ruin your paint job while trying to peel all of that off.

I used masking tape and paper for all of my masking when I started using an airbrush until I developed the skills to do free hand camo. Once I developed the skill, I try to avoid masking cause basically masking is tedious and boring.

i bow to the masters,the thing with masking tape ,you need 2 hands ,i can only use 1 but thanks for the info.

im hardly a master gdarwin. i just like playing with my airbrush on spare plastic. i went out and bought a couple of cheap kits from wally world and didnt care about fits, cockpits, or any detail whatsoever. i slapped the fusalage halves together, attached the wings and things, and went to practicing with the airbrush. i probably have 150 layers of paint on a P-40 ive practiced on for some time now. when i felt confident enough with the brush, i went and bought some cool kits from tamiya and hasegawa. ive experimented with all the above techniques and have reverted back to free hand. i still use my paasche H to prime or lay down my base coat, but i use the omni 5000 for fine detail work. later.

I have used liqyid masking take quiet successful.
Found it most useful for masking recessed areas like eyes in 1/8 figures, canopies and they like.
If you got a good separation line like panels(Robots) or similar it also helps.

Here is how I use it:

1.) Apply to or 3 layers of the masking liquid(one does not guarantee good & even coverage)
2.) Trim any excess away that might have spread into the area to be painted.
3.) Paint the Model
4.) Take a SHARP knife and cut along the masked off area, if you don't do this there is a good change the the paint might peel of the unmasked area when trying to take the masking liquid off.
5.) Roll the edges of the masking liquid INWARDS and away from the painted area, keep doing this till you can take it off nicely and easily. DON'T try to peel/pull the stuff off

Of course I lay down a top-coat prior to using any form of masking medium.
You can use it, but it will give you a sharp outline similar to masking tape.

Like Saltydog and hungfarlow, I too free hand my camo schemes. I take a simple "paint-by letters" approach. What I do is to lightly draw the camo pattern on the fuselage with a .3mm technical pencil and identify a color area by a letter; such as "G" for Dark Ghost Gray, etc.. Then I adjust the airbrush to spray a fine line with my Iwata HP-CS or Paasche-H and outline the camo areas followed by filling them in with the camo color. If needed, I inspect the job and go back an touch up any over-spray. I usually use a 1:1 ratio thinned with 50% Grumbacher Brand OPM (Oil Paint Medium) and 50% Sunny Side Brand TRPS (Turpintine Replacement Paint Solvent).

I stay away from liquid mask, since I've ruined a couple of paint jobs trying to get it off. As for the two hand masking tape problem, I think you may be able to find a tape dispenser at Home Depot or some store like that......wait, I just thought of Office Depot as well, with those weighted tape dispensers, that will sit on your desk.....Now I may have to go get one!!!!