my future project is pinky glad tidings. watching olhas videos on it. she does so well with masking tape and rattle cans so i want to emulate her
So....does this make you a Copy Cat???
ya you betcha. i only copy those better than me thoughSo....does this make you a Copy Cat???
This is so basic, yet I had never thought about this. Lesson learned, great tip Bob.
Allan
Sorry for causing confusion, I was less than clear. I meant what on the vessel is the tape to be used for, protecting an area to be kept unpainted, straight edges, stripes, etc. No matter, the ideas of masking, pinstriping and other materials have been excellent and helpful for many of us. This was a great thread that you started. Thanks!
Allan
I prefer Tamiya, yes its low tack but its good. Regular painters tape is ok too. Burnishing the tape down is more important than the tape itself. Airbrushing is one thing, trying to paint with a brush over masking you'll get bleed every time especially on wood. Rattle cans are ok but several light coats, very light and let dry between.
Another method that I have used is to lay the tape down and then spray the color that you have covered up with the tape. This way, if you get bleed, it will be the same color as what is already under the tape and this spray will "seal" the edge of the tape. Then you can spray with the color you want and you will have a nice sharp edge.
Another tape I have used is electrical tape. it has a very good edge and can be stretched to go around corners better.
Another tape I have used is electrical tape. it has a very good edge and can be stretched to go around corners better.
Great idea. Is there any issue with a "thick" seam when you remove the tape after the second color is applied? Thanks Jeff
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As with anything that involves masking, it all hinges on your ability to put down as thin a coat as possible while maintaining the required coverage. Rattle cans put down a thicker coat in my experience; whereas, paint properly thinned for airbrush application can take several coats before buildup around the mask becomes an issue. One coat of base color to prevent bleed should not cause a problem.
On the other hand, if you are shooting properly-thinned paint in light coats from an airbrush, risk of bleed should be minimal anyway.
On the other hand, if you are shooting properly-thinned paint in light coats from an airbrush, risk of bleed should be minimal anyway.
Yes, if you put down a thick coat to seal it and a thick coat of the new color, it can be pretty thick. But even a thick seam is infinitely better than getting the new color bleed under the tape where you are trying to mask it.
An out of scale ridge between color separations, especially in areas where the viewer's eye is drawn, such as boot topping, can be a problem, especially in smaller scales. If necessary, such ridges can be worked down to where they are less noticeable, if not completely faired smooth, by using some very fine abrasive paper and/or hand-rubbing with pumice and rottenstone. These fine finishing abrasive powders are vailable at any good paint store. They are applied to a damp cloth and rubbed against the surface. Also good for adjusting the level of gloss or matte on a finish coat. Hand-rubbing is the technique used to achieve the beautiful scale finishes on the magnificent late nineteenth and early twentieth century builders' boardroom models.Yes, if you put down a thick coat to seal it and a thick coat of the new color, it can be pretty thick. But even a thick seam is infinitely better than getting the new color bleed under the tape where you are trying to mask it.
Here's where I might rant eloquently about the lamentable discontinuation of Floquil paints, but I won't. It's all about the size of the pigment in the paint. For those interested, the old Floquil technical manual is most informative. It can be found at https://www.paulbudzik.com/tools-techniques/floquil-paint/Floquil Painting Miniatures.PDF. Although written for model railroaders, this booklet is a goldmine of information on painting miniatures and any ship modeler will find it most helpful. For the purposes of this discussion, suffice it to say as the booklet explains, "Scale models require scale paint."
Modern "model paints" are often not to scale. For this reason, I generally use fine artist's tubed oil paints which I condition myself by adding thinners, driers, and flattening agents. Your mileage may vary, of course. The object of the game is to use paint with a high proportion of the finest pigment grind you can find. This results in coverage (opacity) requiring the least thickness of paint coating. Multiple coats of thinned paint is always a better option than fewer coats of thick paint. If tubed artist's colors aren't your thing, another option is to use canned sign painter's colors, the industry standard being One Shot brand, named because its high pigment content allows full coverage with "one shot." (See: https://www.ppg.com/refinish/en-US/products/1-shot)
High finely ground pigment content specialty paints are more expensive than regular paint because additional production costs are incurred in using quality pigments and grinding them very fine and because any given quantity of such paint is going to contain more pigment, which is the most costly component in any paint. Cheap pigments are often not colorfast and, being made up of mixtures of different colors, may sometimes not yield the exact color you want when you mix them yourself. On the plus side of the equation, though, high pigment quality paints are actually less expensive in the long run because when thinned for use, you get a lot more out of the tube or can. Thinner is cheap, so you're paying a huge premium for small little jars of premixed paint, especially if you buy the stuff that's pre-thinned for airbrushing! Those little bottles are useful if you don't want to mix your own colors though and if you are a model railroader or armor modeler that demands the perfectly accurate color match to your prototype, they can be invaluable.
That said, if you have the experience, or are able to use a "color wheel," you can save a lot by mixing your own "little bottles" from larger pint cans or "toothpaste tubes" of artist's oils or acrylics. For ship modeling, we have a rather limited palate: black, white, red, yellow, blue, raw umber or burnt sienna and just about any color you would need can be easily mixed from a half dozen cans or tubes and some turpentine, linseed oil, and Japan drier. If you require it, metalic gold paint is also available, as is finely ground metalic flake pigment which can be added to a bit of clear varnish or dusted onto tacky shellac to yield scale gold leaf effects. Mixing your own colors can save you a bit of money and a whole lot of shelf space that otherwise fills up with dozens of expensive one and two ounce bottles, many of which will be completely dried up rock hard the second time you get around to using them! I do have to admit, though, that those racks of hundreds of those "model paint" bottles on the wall in some guys' shops do look pretty cool.
See online interactive color wheels: https://www.sessions.edu/color-calculator/ https://www.rapidtables.com/web/color/color-wheel.html
Lastly, while I'm on a roll here, perfectly sharp lines of any thickness ("weight" in old time draftsmen's lingo) and even pairs of sharp lines of any thickness can be drawn on a smooth model surface using a straight edge or bent batten as a guide, in either ink or paint using a draftsman's "ruling pen" (or "railroad pen" in the case of double lines.) These come in two types, a rigid nibbed pen for straight lines and a swivel nibbed pen for curves. The width of the lines drawn is set by adjusting the separation of the nib points. These were widely used in the builder's boardroom models for things like drawing deck seams and deck furniture details. They can still be purchased in artists supply stores and catalogs or second hand on eBay in the "drafting instruments" section. They seem to be a tool rarely seen used by today's modelers, but every bit as handy as ever.
Right to left: Swivel head single line, two double line pens, presumably one is swivel nibbed, and a drop-point or "rivet" compass with a ruling pen attached, used for making very small circles (or depicting rivets in engineering drawings.)
Left to right: swivel head ruling pen for curves, two double nibbed pens for drawing parallel lines, and a "drop point" or "rivet" compass for drawing very small circles ("rivets" on engineering drawings) with a ruling pen nib.
Standard straight line ruling pen:
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A word of caution on using a ruling pen. Practice away from your model first. They can be very messy.An out of scale ridge between color separations, especially in areas where the viewer's eye is drawn, such as boot topping, can be a problem, especially in smaller scales. If necessary, such ridges can be worked down to where they are less noticeable, if not completely faired smooth, by using some very fine abrasive paper and/or hand-rubbing with pumice and rottenstone. These fine finishing abrasive powders are vailable at any good paint store. They are applied to a damp cloth and rubbed against the surface. Also good for adjusting the level of gloss or matte on a finish coat. Hand-rubbing is the technique used to achieve the beautiful scale finishes on the magnificent late nineteenth and early twentieth century builders' boardroom models.
Here's where I might rant eloquently about the lamentable discontinuation of Floquil paints, but I won't. It's all about the size of the pigment in the paint. For those interested, the old Floquil technical manual is most informative. It can be found at https://www.paulbudzik.com/tools-techniques/floquil-paint/Floquil Painting Miniatures.PDF. Although written for model railroaders, this booklet is a goldmine of information on painting miniatures and any ship modeler will find it most helpful. For the purposes of this discussion, suffice it to say as the booklet explains, "Scale models require scale paint."
Modern "model paints" are often not to scale. For this reason, I generally use fine artist's tubed oil paints which I condition myself by adding thinners, driers, and flattening agents. Your mileage may vary, of course. The object of the game is to use paint with a high proportion of the finest pigment grind you can find. This results in coverage (opacity) requiring the least thickness of paint coating. Multiple coats of thinned paint is always a better option than fewer coats of thick paint. If tubed artist's colors aren't your thing, another option is to use canned sign painter's colors, the industry standard being One Shot brand, named because its high pigment content allows full coverage with "one shot." See: https://www.ppg.com/refinish/en-US/products/1-shot
High finely ground pigment content specialty paints are more expensive than regular paint because additional production costs are incurred in using quality pigments and grinding them very fine and because any given quantity of such paint is going to contain more pigment, which is the most costly component in any paint. Cheap pigments are often not colorfast and, being made up of mixtures of different colors, may sometimes not yield the exact color you want when you mix them yourself. On the plus side of the equation, though, high pigment quality paints are actually less expensive in the long run because when thinned for use, you get a lot more out of the tube or can. Thinner is cheap, so you're paying a huge premium for small little jars of premixed paint, especially if you buy the stuff that's pre-thinned for airbrushing! Those little bottles are useful if you don't want to mix your own colors though and if you are a model railroader or armor modeler that demands the perfectly accurate color match to your prototype, they can be invaluable.
That said, if you have the experience, or are able to use a "color wheel," you can save a lot by mixing your own "little bottles" from larger pint cans or "toothpaste tubes" of artist's oils or acrylics. For ship modeling, we have a rather limited palate: black, white, red, yellow, blue, raw umber or burnt sienna and just about any color you would need can be easily mixed from a half dozen cans or tubes and some turpentine, linseed oil, and Japan drier. If you require it, metalic gold paint is also available, as is finely ground metalic flake pigment which can be added to a bit of clear varnish or dusted onto tacky shellac to yield scale gold leaf effects. Mixing your own colors can save you a bit of money and a whole lot of shelf space that otherwise fills up with dozens of expensive one and two ounce bottles, many of which will be completely dried up rock hard the second time you get around to using them! I do have to admit, though, that those racks of hundreds of those "model paint" bottles on the wall in some guys' shops do look pretty cool.
See online interactive color wheels: https://www.sessions.edu/color-calculator/ https://www.rapidtables.com/web/color/color-wheel.html
Lastly, while I'm on a roll here, perfectly sharp lines of any thickness ("weight" in old time draftsmen's lingo) and even pairs of sharp lines of any thickness can be drawn on a smooth model surface using a straight edge or bent batten as a guide, in either ink or paint using a draftsman's "ruling pen" (or "railroad pen" in the case of double lines.) These come in two types, a rigid nibbed pen for straight lines and a swivel nibbed pen for curves. The width of the lines drawn is set by adjusting the separation of the nib points. These were widely used in the builder's boardroom models for things like drawing deck seams and deck furniture details. They can still be purchased in artists supply stores and catalogs or second hand on eBay in the "drafting instruments" section. They seem to be a tool rarely seen used by today's modelers, but every bit as handy as ever.
Right to left: Swivel head single line, two double line pens, presumably one is swivel nibbed, and a drop-point or "rivet" compass with a ruling pen attached, used for making very small circles (or depicting rivets in engineering drawings.)
Left to right: swivel head ruling pen for curves, two double nibbed pens for drawing parallel lines, and a "drop point" or "rivet" compass for drawing very small circles ("rivets" on engineering drawings) with a ruling pen nib.
View attachment 490525
Standard straight line ruling pen:
View attachment 490526
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With apologies to my friend, Bob Cleek:
As a Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering student way back in BC (before CAD) our first assignment was to produce a lines drawing from a Table of Offsets. The assignment required first a pencil drawing followed by an ink tracing on vellum.
We all had boxed sets of drafting instruments that included the two nib ruling pens. A few students had German Rapidograph pens but these were quite expensive. Unfortunately for inexperienced users, like me, with drafting skills similar to those of the Peanuts Comic Strip character “Pigpen,” the ruling pens were sensitive to the amount of ink that could be loaded between the two nibs. Too little and the pen would run out of ink before completing a full line. To much and it would drop a large blob in the middle of the drawing! I eventually bought a Rapidograph pen.
I still have and use my boxed drafting set. I also still make lines drawings the old fashioned way by hand and make ink tracings. Today erasable Mylar drafting film and disposable dirt cheap drawing pens make this task easy.
My current project fortunately does not require me to get my old two nib drafting pen loaded with paint anywhere my model!!
Roger
As a Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering student way back in BC (before CAD) our first assignment was to produce a lines drawing from a Table of Offsets. The assignment required first a pencil drawing followed by an ink tracing on vellum.
We all had boxed sets of drafting instruments that included the two nib ruling pens. A few students had German Rapidograph pens but these were quite expensive. Unfortunately for inexperienced users, like me, with drafting skills similar to those of the Peanuts Comic Strip character “Pigpen,” the ruling pens were sensitive to the amount of ink that could be loaded between the two nibs. Too little and the pen would run out of ink before completing a full line. To much and it would drop a large blob in the middle of the drawing! I eventually bought a Rapidograph pen.
I still have and use my boxed drafting set. I also still make lines drawings the old fashioned way by hand and make ink tracings. Today erasable Mylar drafting film and disposable dirt cheap drawing pens make this task easy.
My current project fortunately does not require me to get my old two nib drafting pen loaded with paint anywhere my model!!
Roger
They sure can be messy but so can just about any instrument that uses paint or ink. Proper use, cleaning, and care of ruling pens goes a long way towards heading off mishaps, though. One thing that is never done with a ruling pen is to simply dip it in the ink or paint. Another thing that's a big no-no is using the pen against an edge which is not raised, or relieved on its underside. If the edge of the straight edge lays against the drawing surface, a run-under is virtually assured. The old draftsman's trick was to tape a couple of pennies on the underside of the ruler, square, or curve to raise the edge off the writing surface. How to use a ruling pen correctly:
Introduction (or brush up) to manual drafting for those so inclined:
I've found over the years that my high school elective "mechanical drawing" class gave me a skill, like typing, that stood me in good stead throughout my life, which is more than I can say for a lot of the required courses!
I use my manual drafting skills (which are far from professional level) extensively in my workshop hobbies. Being able to draw a set of hull lines from a table of offsets provides a ship modeler access to thousands of potential modeling subjects. Once you know the basics, you don't have to draw works of engineering art. Often, developing just a few lines will be sufficient to define the shapes you need for a given modeling task.
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Tamiya, every time for models, auto-shop tape is too thick, & 'Frog' is 'carp', as it does not stick to itself. It's probably OK for home decorating.
The Tamiya tape is awesome, I use it all the time for airbrusing. Crisp lines, no residue when you pull it back. Not cheap, but better results.
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Kate Cory?!
Tamiya has two lines. The standard yellow is low adhesion (guys doing plastic cars prefer this, but as you noted isn't great on curved surfaces. The White tapes are a different product specifically made for curved surfaces.