Paint question

[Blastech]

Well, troubles with one simple helmet continue, and I once again have a question. After finishing the main paint job on the bucket, I peeled off the masking covering the mandables (the red on Boba) and it peeled the orange along with the primer. You can once again see the ugly DP paint job, and I don't know what happened. I sanded it down and everything. The prob is, all the other greens and stuff are fine. Just the orange mandable paint came off in spots. Should I sand away the orange and mask it again, just priming and painting the orange? Or should I just spray a coat of orange on top?

 

[Nicholas Wolfwood]

Sounds like your masking tape is too strong. Get one that sticks just well enough to cover t during painting, If its too strong it'll peel paint off.

 

[drvfett]

Before sticking the tape on your helmet you can make it less sticky by sticking it to something else first (your bench top, your pant leg etc.) anything that will take the fresh tackiness away. Hope this helps.
Cheers,
ST

 

[Lynn TXP 0369]

Blastech.. yep, it sounds like a couple possible things either the tape was too strong and pulled the paint off, or you pulled the tape off when the paint was fully dry, which is a NO NO, causing the new color to peel off.

Big question???? Did you pull the tape of when the red was fully dry? because that could be a big problem as well.

One thing to remember when doing a multi layer paint job is to always pull the tape off while the paint hasn't fulley dried yet of the color that was just sprayed.
The obejective is to avoid what you just went through, the paint will still be soft and "shouldn't" pull off like what happened when you peeled the tape off.
If the paint has fully dried with the tape on it, score the tape edge with an exacto knife this will cut the paint thus allowing the tape to pull free without peeling the color off..
These are tips from modeling books that will save you headach.

Another thing to try is useing the Blue masking tape, it's glue is not as strong as regular masking tape and works like a charm.

 

[natty15d]

the blue 14 day tape is the best stuff for masking on top of easily damaged surfaces. It sticks well but wont get stickier once its put in place as normal masking tape does.
Nathan

 

[Blastech]

I used black electrical tape because it turns good. And I'm sure that the red was dry when I put on the layer of the tape to paint the green. This is my second helmet, and it didn't happen the first time. What should I do to fix this? Do I need to re prime it? or sense it's just a few spots, could I just add a few new layers of the red?

 

[Nicholas Wolfwood]

Thats your problem - electrical tape is a far too strong adhesive for most spray-paints. I've tried using it to mask projects before, and it invariably tears some paint off. i'd suggest using liquid mask.

 

[Ego]

How long can I leave liquid mask on for before it takes some paint with it?

The reason I ask, is the plan I was thinking of doing for my helmet is as follows.

Paint it metal colour. Then liquid mask off the areas where metal shows through. THen paint it the dark green that shows around the metal. Liquid mask again, then paint the main helmet green.

Has anyone ever tried this before, or am I just living in a dream world and this will never work?

Jer

 

[motorfish]

The blue tape will turn outside corners well, with a little practice. To do the inside corners, don't worry about the line being a perfect curve - it gets touched/covered up with silver weathering in several spots anyways. I suggest that you use small strips and apply them in an overlapping position for the inside curve, slightly turning the next one at a subtle angle.

No one will be able to tell in the end anyways.

 

[motorfish]

Ego:

Yor technique is entirely plauseable, but it will take a lot longer to do than applying the paint topicly.

 

[Ego]

I am still up in the air of how I want to go about my helmet because I really like your topicly tutorial . . . but for some reason I've had this method in my head.

But no one thinks I'll have that type of problem using the liquid mask, as I'm thinking that it could be possible that the liquid mask could stay on for over a few weeks, with other paints layered generously over top.

I'm going to try some different techniques on some scrap . . . I'll probably just end up doing it the "motorfish way" (tm)!

Jer

motorfish wrote:
Yor technique is entirely plauseable, but it will take a lot longer to do than applying the paint topicly.