How to mask complex curves on airliners?

[lufthansi_63]

Hi, i'd like an advice or your tips / tricks on how to mask complex curves on airliners bodies, see here below.

How to make the masking tape horizontal and nicely elyptical?

Many thanks for your tips!

[Head in the clouds.]

Hi, I am no expert as I have only been doing this for a year and a half but I beleive the use of 2 mm masking tape to get your contour and in-fill with gradually larger widths of maskinng tape should give you the desired results; and a lot of patience.

[Beardie]

I would suggest PVC automotive masking tape which you can stretch to conform much more easily than trying to work with the paper type tape normally available for modelling. Carefully applied with tension it should go nicely round the curve. This should work well with airbrushing as long as you don't flood in too much paint in one go as there will be no absorption or wicking at the tape edge as you get with the orange paper masking tapes.

[Jetblast]

If you have decent reference pics & there is enough detail on the model, you can pic a bunch of reference points along the demarcation & mark these on the model to align your tape against. Thin tape (or sliced down regular tape) will obviously work better, automotive fineline tape being a good bet as well. If the curve is too tight for whichever tape you use & it wrinkles on the outside edge, just nick the tape at regular intervals (90° to the demarcation) to help it settle down, PVC fineline tape can also be "stretched" on the outside edge to prevent wrinkling / lifting on the inner edge (does that even make any sense?).

Dependant on the scale & curvature involved you could also make a mask from regular broad masking tape (or even overlapped narrower tape) - lay it down on the fuselage, mark reference points on it as above, remove it (carefully, you don't want to stretch it) & lay it onto a hard surface like a sheet of glass or a plate, use your marked reference points to draw a smooth line & then cut along it - voila.

If you have trouble initially removing the tape with the second method, you can also use greaseproof / silicone / tracing paper to pic up the reference points & then lay it out over masking tape / sheet to cut.

I'm sure that the commercial boys will have some other tricks up there sleeves as well.

[RODH2]

50mm automotive masking tape will enable you to cut around a small circle - a coin, plastic cap, anything that approximates the shape you are looking for - then you can finish the sides with gently curving narrow tape, spliced Tamiya tape is as good as any!!. A roll of 50mm masking tape, get the cheap stuff, is a few dollars at your local hardware store .

[heloman1]

Have a look at Jammy Dog website, they have 1.25mm masking tape which will pull a tight radius. www.jammydog.com

Colin

[lufthansi_63]

Have a look at Jammy Dog website, they have 1.25mm masking tape which will pull a tight radius. www.jammydog.com

Colin

Thanks, I'll have a look!

[m4rky]

If the curve you want to mask is already a demarcation/panel line on the model you could place a large piece of masking tape over the lot.

Then rub it down so you can see the panel line through the tape.

Now carefully run a very sharp blade down the panel line and cut it out.

I have used this technique for masking windscreens on cars.