The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

iggie wrote:That's looking great; I'll be interested to see how the masking comes off

ditto, as much as I love the blutac method for masking soft edges, filling in the gaps with masking tape was a slow and painful and often could lead to disturbing the tac.

It is a pain - looking forward to seeing if that masking fluid works for you.

Some lovely work going on here.

Well, the liquid mask came off revealing a quite reasonable result, I think.



As expected there was some stubborn bits stuck in fine crevices, like where the intakes join the fuselage, around the intake at the base of the fin, and tailplane/fuselage joins. You can see some of the scratching around there.
The smart thing to do (must remember, next time) is not to attach the tailplanes until after painting. Quite doable in this particular case.
The underside:



So some repainting will be required around the tailplane/fuselage joins and the tailcone (hence some masking left on), and some touch-ups elsewhere (e.g. I forgot the scoops on the upper fuselage just behind the intakes). The ventral fin needs painting at the same time. Then the airbrake housing, which has been pre-shaded. You can also barely see the pre-shading in the light aircraft grey.
About 70% of the blu-tack is a goner; the rest will live to mask another day.

Cheers,

David

That's a pretty good result David, but a bit expensive in terms of blutac wastage.....the demarcation looks spot on though

Nicely done, David. The pre-shading in the grey looks spot on to me and you have achieved some good demarcations 'twixt the colours.

Great looking Harrier David. I like how the masking technique worked out. Sharp lines where there should be and subtle soft lines. Just wondering if you can pull and knead the blu tac to remove the paint like a kneaded eraser?

Hi Paul,

yes, I have learned that the best solution between the blu-tack noodles is probably a combination of the masking fluid and Tamiya tape. Tamiya tape over the crevices, and masking fluid everywhere else.

Knead the blu-tack to lift the paint? Do you mean the dried mask? The blu-tack does help lift the dried mask where it is dried on the blu-tack. Otherwise it will not lift off that way. The dried mask has to be rolled off, and even prised off carefully at a corner to start.

Does that answer your question?

David

skypirate wrote:

celt wrote:This may seem like a silly question,but what is Micromask fluid?

Here it is. It is the same size as the Micro Sol and Micro Set bottles.



Thanks for the info skypirate,BTW your work is well tidy mun.

Kneading and stretching a kneaded eraser removes graphite when drawing and I thought maybe it would remove the paint and debris after you have removed it from the model so you can reuse it.

PGAS wrote:Kneading and stretching a kneaded eraser removes graphite when drawing and I thought maybe it would remove the paint and debris after you have removed it from the model so you can reuse it.

Aha! Understood.
Nah! Fine particles of dried mask in parts of the blu-tack are too laborious to remove. They don't just fall out when you knead and stretch.

cheers,

David

Very nice result Skypirate. I will have to get myself some of that MicroMask and give it a go.
Shame about the waste of blu-tack, I tend to use white-tack as it's less sticky and can be bought in pound shops over here.



I'm sure you must be able to get it in your local. harrier looks great by the way.

Old_Tonto wrote:Very nice result Skypirate. I will have to get myself some of that MicroMask and give it a go.

Thank you, and I will look out for White-Tack!

cheers,

David

Getting ready for 5 weeks away from the work bench! So no progress lately.
I will spend a month in the USA, including dropping in to the IPMS Nats in Omaha, Nebraska. (Must do the same for Telford, sometime!)
Leaving home on Friday.

You guys keep busy!

cheers,

David

Hope you have a great trip, and look forward to seeing you back at the bench on your return

That sounds like a really fantastic trip you are going on, David. The only part of the States I have been to so far is New York City. Have a great time!