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Maketar Masks...............apparently I am dumb.


BlueNosers352nd

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After fighting Star n Bar decals on my P-51B, I decided to rip them off and use some mask sets I got from Maketar.  I don't know if Eaglestrike Decals aren't that good, if my MicroSol is bad (both bottles), or what.  They are not settling worth a darn.  If I add a little more Microsol to try and get them to settle they end up just staying all crinkly.  Built plenty of models in the past, never had this kinda issue.  Superscale ones I used on my A-36 didn't have a problem.  Couple applications of Microsol and they were fine.  Two sets of stars and bars from Eagle Strike that go to poo.  Every other part of the sheet I have used has been fine.

 

Anyway, I am trying to wrap my head around these Maketar Masks and I am stumped.  Doesn't seem straight forward to me.  So on the crude instructions on the back, they show the round US star, white back ground, blue star and red dot in the center.  The instructions show, running a piece of tape across to hold everything in place.  Then painting white, then paint the blue star and then paint the red center.  So to me, that means place the outer mask on the plane and paint the white.  Overlay the parts still stuck to the tape that keeps everything in register and pull off the outer strip to reveal the area to be painted blue.

 

I have now ruined two masks because things don't release right.   Like something wasn't aligned, so I peeled it back off and it wanted to leave part of the mask there.  Just ended up walking away for the night because now I am just PO'd at the whole thing.  I don't really see any YouTube videos, or talk anywhere about using them in any great depth.  Just, yeah I used masks posts and that's it.

 

Anyone have any tips/thoughts?  Apparently I am too stupid to use these things.


Thanks as always!

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I would paint the whole area where the symbol goes white, stick the entire mask down, paint the aircraft colours, remove the part of the mask where the red is, paint the red, replace that part of the mask, removes the mask section for the blue, paint the blue, remove all the mask.

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Masks are very fiddly to use but are worth it for the painted on look, when using masks forget about the convention of painting the light colours first, there are two ways to use mask, either as straight masks or as reverse masks. Beware of which colours you paint first, I once made a mistake with US markings by painting the white first on the star roundels, then painting the blue, when I took the masks off this is what I was left with. the white peaking through the edges. So I had to redo them painting the blue first.

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The traditional way, before applying the masks I mark them to help aligning them, this is a four colour roundel on a Typhoon, I have applied the mask and removed the transfer tape..

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Remove the white and red sections of the mask

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Spray the white

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Now for the red, so first up is the tricky job of replacing the white section of the mask, the lines drawn on the mask aid this but it is still a bit fiddley, a pointy set of tweezers are dead handy to have for this job

This is on the upper wing but the same process

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Spray the red, here I am doing a few at a time

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Leave everything to dry and the mask off the red.

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And now time for tricky job of removing the blue section of mask without damaging them and making sure that they are stored safely so that the blue can be masked off ready for the yellow outer ring.

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On with the blue

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Replace the blue masking and remove the yellow section of the masks.

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Paint the yellow and remove the masking

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For the reverse masking way I would first spray the yellow onto the bare plastic and apply the complete mask after marking it as above, then paint the camouflage colours. this is a link to how I used this method on a Spitfire

https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/66520-last-build-for-2016-a-bit-late/page/4/

Hope this helps, masks are fiddley to apply but worth it in the end, I am no expert and I get nervous every time that I use them but I still prefer them to decals

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

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Thanks Dennis, that makes more sense to me.   I was just trying to follow the instructions............yeah I know, a guy following instructions.  Geesh!  The marking of the mask is a good idea too.  Should of thought of something like that.  In woodworking we draw a triangle across all the pieces when doing a glue up to make 1 panel outta many boards.  I'll see what happens tonight!

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I don't think I will ever (or try to) use them again.  You get one chance to place it.  If you are off just a bit you are hosed because it never peels off right.  Their claim that it can be used over and over again is highly misleading. 

 

#3 ruined.............scratch that #4 ruined.

 

Edited by BlueNosers352nd
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  • 1 month later...

Back to this issue I have with masks.  It's amazing the problems you solve (sometimes) while taking a shower.  Even though I haven't tested the theory, I think I have figured out how to paint stars/bars before the rest of the plane is painted.  Paint insiginia blue covering the whole area of the insignia, and then some adjacent area.  Put the mask down, pull the white areas and paint the white.  Then you can use Tamiya tape to cover up the white area before painting the rest of the aircraft.  And boom.....Bob's your uncle!

 

The issue I have, at least with Maketar Masks, is picking up and putting pieces back down.  If you were to do Stars/Bars after the whole plane is painted, you'd have to put the whole mask down, including the outside square perimeter, pick up the blue border and white areas.  How do you do that and get all the proper pieces to come back up?  The masks always seem so sticky and getting the inner portion up seems to fight me and usually ends up ruining the mask.   Then you have to lay the center portion down and only pick up the white portion.  What's the secret?

 

Alignment is still an issue, but I think with horizontal and vertical tick marks at the corners of the bars and some practice will help with that.  Basically, I'm finding, once any portion of the mask is down it's down without major effort and mask damaging results to get it off.

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That is the way that I do it, though it is more difficult for some masks, I first used this technique on a Spitfire a few years ago, the latest example that I used it on is a /32 scale Raiden.

White airbrushed for the tail numbers and Hinomaru outlines.

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Masks applied and yellow applied for leading edges and lightening flashes

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All masked off

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And the big unmasking

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Cheers

 

Dennis

 

 

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