I am beyond frustrated tonight. I am doing a Revell 1/32 Heinkel He 111 P-1 in the standard early war splinter scheme of RLM65, RLM70 and RLM71. The photos should convey the leve of frustration that I am feeling right now.
The paint is Model Master Acryl. I am using Tamiya tape to mask the hard-edges of the splinter scheme. When I first put down the RLM65 on the underside, I mis-aligned the mask along the fuselage underside, pulled it up carefully to re-align and noticed that some of the paint had pulled up. After I repainted, I let it sit for a couple of days to cure (I applied a generous coat of Future over the paint to act as a sealant and protect the paint from the masking material). During that time I determined that there seems to be a lot of tackiness to this Tamiya tape. I've never had an issue with Tamiya tape with one exception - my most recent build, another Revell kit, a P-39D. For the next masking session, I deliberately put the tape on my shirt and pulled it off several times to remove some of the tackiness.
I typically wash all the parts in warm, soapy water prior to beginning construction. I did that on both the P-39 and the He111. While I don't recall on the P-39, I do know that I did not apply a primer coat to the He111.
Any one have an ideas what might be causing this? Could it be old paint? Lack of prime coat? Tape too tacky? Any suggestions on how to mask for these German schemes? I considered cutting paper masks but could not come up with a good way to adhering the paper to the plastic without using tape. I also tried wall tack and Post-It Notes. The Post-It Notes surprising lifted paint as well. The wall tack was just an attempt to see if it would also lift paint - it did not. I suppose I could use wall tack to secure paper masks but it seems that the paper will not be flush with the plastic, which I think it will need to be to get the hard-edge.