Masking help

An airbrush will prevent that.
How long did you leave the tape on after you painted it?
You should pull tape off ASAP when you paint or this can happen.
You may want to try a thinner tape such as Scotch tape also as it leaves less of a buildup although it does tend to be a little too tacky. Sticking each piece to your forehead a few times takes some of the tackiness away and helps alot.

MikeV wrote:

An airbrush will prevent that.

Just as soon as that tax refund gets here, trust me.... ;-)

MikeV wrote:

How long did you leave the tape on after you painted it? You should pull tape off ASAP when you paint or this can happen.

It needed a second coat, so I left it on there long enough to do that. I thought I'd brushed any buildup away, but I guess it can still haunt ya. To get a good coat on the first time would've made the paint really thick, and it would've been darn near impossible to re-mask the camo pattern.

MikeV wrote:

You may want to try a thinner tape such as Scotch tape also as it leaves less of a buildup although it does tend to be a little too tacky. Sticking each piece to your forehead a few times takes some of the tackiness away and helps alot.

If i wouldn't have read that a few times already, I'd have figured you were pulling my leg. LOL I can just see the conversation with my wife. "No, really, these guys on the forum told me it would work well...." ;-)

Hopefully I'll get the AB in the next few weeks. 2 of the next kits up to bat need masking, so hopefully those will be good projects to work on learning my AB skills.

Do you think some sort of very light sanding technique could reduce the buildup that's there?

BTW, Mike, that P-47 of your is looking awesome.

jwb wrote:

Do you think some sort of very light sanding technique could reduce the buildup that's there?

As long as you're careful and use very fine #600 paper, you should be able to reduce the ridge effect significantly.

As Mike suggested, thinner tape may help as well.  My personal favorite is Tamiya Yellow tape.  It is a bit pricey, so I typically use it only for edges and then use less expensive tape for fields.  It is very thin, fairly flexible to mask on compound curves, low tack to not peel up underlying paint, yet it seals well. 

When brush paint another thing you can do to alleviate ridges is to use a somewhat dryer brush and start the stroke on the tape brushing toward the area to be painted.  The idea, if you can visualize a  microscopic cross section of the tape, is to avoid piling up a lot of wet paint at the edge of the tape.

Andy 

ABARNE wrote:

As long as you're careful and use very fine #600 paper, you should be able to reduce the ridge effect significantly.

I'll give that a shot. Thanks!

I had good result with brush painting by using electrical tape.  It's flexible enough to match shapes and you can follow curves.  After applying the tape, use a round shape like the tip of the x-acto knife to rub the edge firmly that will eliminate any gap and won't get under it by capilarity.  Worked good for me before I had an airbrush.

Another popular masking material that is thin is Parafilm.
Maybe somebody could comment on it as I have not used it and don't want to assume anything.

Parafilm works OK. Not a big fan of it since it gives pretty hard edges and Tamiya tape just works better for that...

Parafilm is great for tight, complex areas: stretch it over, press it down, trace edge with very sharp blade.

Do NOT leave it on for more than a few days, or it will be very hard to get it all off—very good adhesion, but fragile film.

I often use 1200 grade wet and dry sandpaper to smooth out any built edges from where i've masked. I've saved a few pieces of some well worn 1200 grade and using wet and it works fine , any minute scratches it may leave dissappear after a couple of coats of clear.

Thanks to all for the advice.

I ended up getting lazy. It's Easter Sunday afternoon, the whole house is taking a nap, and I didn't want to go to the store for sandpaper. So I thought I recalled someone saying they used a coffee filter for very fine sanding. I tried it. And you know what? It worked!

Had to keep blowing on it to get the tiny fibers off from the filter, but for the most part, it smoothed the edges down, and with a few dabs of paint here and there to cover up bleed, it ended up looking fairly decent. Hopefully by next weekend I'll have the bird complete and can post some pictures.

Bare Metal Foil also works great as a mask when you want a hard edge, but it is in the pricey range.

Not sure this will help, but 2 suggestions - (for the future) and a tip

1 - Frisket Paper
I have some, but haven't used it yet, don't know how different it is from parafilm. Frisjet is basically post-it note glue on paper. You can cut shapes and it's very low tack.

2 - No masking (where possible)
Camo can be painted fairly nicely (tight) without masking with an airbrush and some nozzle control (and practice)

Tip - with airbrush, you can aim from behind the masking tape so you aren't shooting high-pressure paint into the finished seam edge.