I masked off some leading edges today and when I removed my Tamiya tape, had raised paint line that I now intend to 1200 grit paper down.

How's it best avoid this in the first place? I put about 3 thin coats of white and thought this time I'd avoided this problem, by using thinner paint...........

Also, while I'm at it.......I made sure the tape was down firmly, using my fingernail to rub back and forth, and still had some bleed. Maybe I pulled the tape off too soon, or in the wrong direction......Any tips?

Cheers

Hi Alex

This is a problem that I have not fully mastered myself. The hard truth is: too thick layers. It also helps if you pull off the tape, before the paint is dry (which is of course not possibel if you have several subsequent colours to mask ... Viggen Splinter schem comes to mind)

As for the bleeding. First see above too thin paint and too thick layers. A method to impove things is to first spray a layer of the colour you masked (which will of cours add a bit to the ridge but will seal the tape). Also it is better to work from light colours to darker shades as the darker colours have a better opacity .. e.g. white, yellow and red have a very bad coverage so it is best to spray this colours on first and mask then

I am sure you will get much more good hints

all the best

Steffen.

Thanks, Steffen.

Think maybe I was a bit heavy-handed with my 'thin' coats of paint.

Hey Alex , trying spraying flat white instead of gloss white . You will need less coats of the flat base and get better coverage then with a gloss . If you need it to be glossy apply another coat of clear gloss and continue with the masking .

Steffen has already stated about the thinkness of paint and from light to dark colours in what order . To add to that , watch the speed of your passes as well . I go just a little slower when spraying white .

Depending on the thickness of the ridge you might be able to level this off with a few coats of clear , if it's not to bad .

Thanks, Terri. I should have mentioned, I'm using a brush for all of this. I put down the main coat with a Tamiya spray, then use my paint brush for the rest. However, all the comments made still apply:)

Ahh, makes things even more difficult.

I know two modellers who paint brush their models .. which look extremely good I must add! Both do not use masks. Either they apply decals for stripes and the like or they draw the contours with a pencil and then fill it.

I have read somewhere that you should start inside and work your way to the border, but I have no own experience,.except when I started 25 years ago. Then it was more important to have some paint on the model than not having a ridge. I clearly remember painting a kopro S-199 with a dark rich green paint and handpainting some "Luftwaffe markings" on. The paint was what we call Nitrofarbe (maybe nitro-cellulose paint) .. heavy stuff that melts polystyrene in a blink .. .still it was fun but I digress.

I think you will have a hard time getting a smooth finish with handpainting and masking. Carful sanding/polishing and several clear layers (maybe from the rattle can) may be helpful

all the best

Steffen

Gee , that really throws a curve ball into the pitch !

Brush painting you say , now that takes me way back . With the masking tape you will always have to deal with ridges when brush painting . trying to paint white will be like pulling teeth out of the devil . Flat or gloss . It's one colour I used a rattle can for when I didn't have an airbrush yet .

Try and do it free hand . Draw the patteren on with pencil and work from the middle out wards . See if you can avoid using masking tape unless you have to but you will have to sand and polish the areas where the ridges are and will take a few coats of clear to blend it all in . You can also try using a seem srcaper ( squadron tool ) and just scrape where the ridges are with a few light passes , buff and then seal with clear . Hand brushing can be hard to master but with some practice very good results can be made .

Thanks for the tips. I do like making life harder for myself by using brushes....

I would really like to see some brush-painted models that had good results...as a kind of inspiration and goal to work towards.

- My impression is that gloss paint builds up a lot faster against the mask edge than matt paint. hence i always use matt paint and put several layers of future on top of it if a shine is needed, or before adding decals.

- never airbrush in the direction of the mask, always brush away from it.

- i use tamiya masking tape and rub it firmly on the edges to make it thin

- I work with a low pressure of 15 psi

i hope that this can help

This is my Academy 1/72 p-39


You can click on the image to great a really big size for extra scrutiny.

This didn't turn out bad as far as masking went . The whole model was sprayed white with a rattle can first.
But all the OD and neutral grey where brush painted.

Lightest colour first means you won't need so many coats. two at most.

The OD was revell acrylic, white was humbrol matt enamel as was the grey.
Try to brush away from the tape that way you aren't pushing paint up to the edge.

Pull tape away from the edge. And if the edge is too much sand it back carefully with
as fine grit as you can get once fully cured, leave it a week.

A coat of future and then a flat coat will even things out too.

This is all fine but it is much easier with an AB. Really a worthwhile investment.
Thinner coats, more scope for effects yadda, yadda, yadda.

Having said that I hate breaking mine out as I don't have a
model room so for 1/72 a brush is fine for me for these hard edge schemes.