Has anyone ever used Blue Tack as a masking medium?
Did you have any problems?
Does it leave any residue?
Thanks

Hi,
Are you talking about blue painters tape? If so to me it leaves little to no residue. I use it all the time when I mask off something. Have you ever heard of frisket paper?

To pre-cut shapes, I use Post-it. It's easy to remove without traces.
In general, I like to work with liquid masking material : the pink rubber stuff. Since it's liquid, it's easy to apply to little nooks and crannies or to cover details where tape lets you down.
Jan

No, sorry I thought Blue Tack was universal, it's sort of a putty, you tear off a piece and use it to hang posters and such like. I've read about it being rolled into sausages and used to mask camouflage. It is tacky so I wonderd if it left a residue. Thanks anyway

Holdfast--I use Blue Tack to stick my figures down while I am painting them. If you leave it on too long, the stuff does tend to stick on to the plastic, but it comes off perfectly fine if it's only been on for a day. I can't say how it would react in your case, though. You'll be covering a painted model I presume.......

Nic

Yes Folgore, I'm trying to sort out the demarcation on my tri colour Helldiver. I normally don't have any problems freehand air brushing but this time I have screwed up three times. I'm looking for a way to mask compound curves that will give me the tight overspray that I usually get freehand.

Holdfast, I have used blue tack to mask on aircraft painted with testors enamels. It didn't leave any residue but i only left it on for a few hours. The way i used it was to hold old business cards cut to the shape of the camo on the model just above the surface, giving a nice feathered/soft edge to the pattern. However ther was some splatter under the business cards and the tack did get hit with paint but it didn't seem to cause any strange reaction and peeled off fine after the paint was dry. It just left a more defined edge to the camo line. So u prob could use it directly. I have been thinking of using it for a spotted pattern of camo on a Panther A. (Little balls of blue tack) Let me know if it works. Cheers!

:-) Thanks Bison44, I had thought about using the card trick but It would be very difficult to get the correct shap over the nose, thats why I wanted to use Blue Tack direct. The other problem with this method is if you roll the sausages by hand then you get a wavy effect, which is no good. I solved that one by making a Blue Tack sausage rolling machine. Anyway you have given me the confidence to try it. I will give it a go tomorrow and let you know how it goes. Fingers crossed

Hold fast,
Why don't you try drawing the shape on some fablon (not sure of the spelling, you know the stuff for waterproofing maps), then you could cut it out and stick it on, spray and remove.
I'm not sure how this will work as the idea just came to me, so I'd try it on some scrap first.
Let me know if it works.
Robbo

PS Where you ever based in Maidstone? I've just left there.

No I've never been posted to Maidstone but My brother has. I did know a Robbo, (Danny Robertson), you haven't transfered from the Royal Engineers have you?
I'm afraid your Fablon idea wouldn't work, it's adhesive is far to powerful but frisk film would. However it wouldn't give me the slight overspray that I looking for. Thanks for the input anyway.
Where are you posted at the moment?
Mal

Hi Holdfast
In "military modelling" magazine vol.32 No.10 30aug-26sept 2002, Steve Zaloga makes a Sherman at El Alamein with a desert camouflage. He uses a product called silly putty for the same idea.
If you can access yahoo groups there is a group there called milimod2 and a guy has the whole article loaded up.
Hope this helps
Frank

How do you hold the frisket paper down? I have a roll of the stuff, but I'm not sure of the best way to keep it in one olace while spraying.

Thanks for any help!

C94

After seeing the results on this sherman and the simplicity of the whole concept, If I needed to mask off to paint a camouflage or anything else I would go for the silly putty/blue tack idea. Just my opinion.
Putting down tape or other paper items, has never worked great for me. There is always a bleed somewhere and always at the most noticeable places.

Hi C94 frisket paper has a low tack adhesive with a backing paper that should peel off. Airbrush artists us it for masking. It works fine on flat surfaces but on curves it tends to lift, alowing paint to seep under it. Hope this helps.

:-) Thanks Plasticbattle and everyone else that has had an input.
:-) I can tell you now from personal experience that it works, I used it this morning. I used my patented Blue Tack sausage rolling machine to roll out parellel sided lengths, applied them to the model. I set up my air brush and sprayed the gloss sea blue. I left the blue tack masks on for a further 30 mins. When I removed the masks I was most impressed with the outcome and no residue. There is a warning on the packet about residue and the fact that the adhesive bond increases over time. This is the reason for my concern but I am assuming that because I hardly used any pressure, I sort of just laid it on, and it was on for not much more than an hour therefore I had no problems. :-) :-) :-)