Paint Lines Easily

chartsmalm May 18, 2008

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. chartsmalm

    chartsmalm Passed away May 1, 2011 In Memoriam

    246
    0
    14
    I stopped at a local art supply store to pick up some of the costly thin masking tape. The young man waiting on me asked me about my intended use. When I told him that I would be painting schematic straight lines (my control panel), he made a suggestion for an alternative technique to the expensive, hard to handle film style masking tape.

    He pointed out that the clean edge that is being sought with the film tape will often be blurred because of microscopic imperfections in the tape and/or the application of the tape. IN addition it is expensive and hard to maipulate.

    His method follows. I used it in several test applications and it worked beautifully. I'm ready for the control panel.

    The masking tape to use is the blue "no lift" masking tape from the hardware store. Outline the line to be painted, with no overlaps. Make all four corners of the line clean and square. Xacto makes this an easy chore. The key "trick" is next. Paint a thin coat of acrylic matte medium, that dries transparent, in the line area outlined. When this is thoroughly dry, paint the acrylic color line. When all is dry, pull up the masking tape and you will see the cleanest line that you could ever want. The matte medium filled in the valleys that exist in the tapes paper texture. Those valleys are what gives the paper its "no lift" characteristic.

    I haven't tried the technique on a model yet - but I imagine that it will be equally useful.

    I am a real fan of acrylics, thus my description above. I would presume that one could use a thinned flat, oil based, clear-coat in lieu of the acrylic matte medium. This base could be followed by an enamel color.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 18, 2008
  2. Flash Blackman

    Flash Blackman TrainBoard Member

    13,326
    499
    149
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page