noob painter ,masking tips please

[tugg]

Hi, I,ve been trying my hand at a bit of custom painting and airbrushing on and off for years and have now got the bug again. I am in the middle of a helmet project atm with metal panelled effect and have airbrushed Bender the robot from futurama on the back and was pleased with how it came out but I have just laid down some flames and on de-masking it was pulling the edges up really bad. I have been using waterbased rm paint and I have noticed it not like the solvent based base coats I used to use .Has anyone got any tips on how to keep the bc ffom lifting and also is it better to remove masking sooner or later .thanks in advance

 

[tugg]

anybody?????????????

 

[gtc73]

yikes,
This ****s, I know your pain. I was always told it's the prep work before spraying the paint. I know...too late for that. The paint REALY needs to bite....got to really ruff up the surface being sprayed for the paint to adhere.

That said, when removing the tape, pull it back against itself. not upward/off but peel it back...if that makes sence. Now this will help, but not prevent lifting if the prep work was not done properly, ie, sanded well, cleaned with like a preps all product, tac-clothed, and primed. and once your base is down, I gfot to believe some good curing time based on the tech sheets on the paint you are using before pulling that dang tape!

hope this is helpful....

gc

 

[tugg]

thanks for the info, I have been just using 1 coat of clearcoat between as a intercoat as I work in a body shop so its free, and I normally grey scotch for prep before re-masking, would it be better to use 800 wet/dry.Also ,do you de mask asap or leave it to cure. Also I think i have read some where that you can heat seat your basecoat with a hot air gun but is this after you have de-masked.

 

[hoss]

you could hit the clear w/ red scotch brite w/o problems. 800 wet would work too.

 

[tugg]

 

[Skeletoil]

Just cut around your flames, just lightly, liquid spray mask is ten times easier to cut than tape or any other masking.