Hello Anthony,

For my part, I have yet to find a better allround masking tape for model painting purposes than Tamiya. If the paint comes away like you describe, I would thus be inclined to seek the root of the problem elsewhere before looking for another tape.

More specifically my first thought would have been that the paint didn't adhere well enough to the surface, either because said surface didn't give a good enough key for the primer to hold on to, or the primer and the paint did not like each other. What material is the hull, and which primer did you use?

If there's good enough reason to think that the above is not the case, it might even more simply be that the paint is not yet dry enough! Acrylics are difficult in that way, due to the fact that they dry from the outside in, which means that they may feel completely dry to the touch, but may still have a, be it ever so thin, thin film furthest in that is not yet fully hardened, and therefore easily slides off together with the masking tape.

Depending on circumstances (e.g. temperature, humidity, thickness of paint, brand of paint) an acrylic paint might be dry enough for masking over within 24 to 48 hours, or it might need even several weeks (!) before being fully cured all the way through. I don't know of any hard and fast rules, but have over time come to recognise the difference in feel with the paints that I mainly use – when not yet fully dry, the paint has, I find, an ever so slight but nevertheless recognisable "slickness" about it under the fingers that tells me I still need to be careful (and patient) …

/Mattias

Getting a crisp line seems to be a combination of properly dried/cured paint, a nice smooth surface, and well rubbed down edges on the masking tape. I confess to using cheap masking tape, and don't normally have a problem. Some tape is better than others and the dodgy stuff can usually be judged by the coarser appearance (sorry that's a bit vague).

If in doubt obviously you cannot go wrong with a modeling branded tape, but even then I would buy new, use, throw the rest away…masking tape of any age and wot has been hanging about for a while is no good.

I have just sprayed a band of colour on a cabin, using Halfords spray paint, and the base coats/colours were also same, using cheap masking tape, and having let the cabin base coats dry for a few days and the crispness of line is a thing of beooty – handily, as I used a lot of tape and the cabin is all curves and and

Ashley

Hi Dave

I tend to bounce between the delicate and multi surface tapes **LINK** depending upon the surface.

For fine lines I cut the tape width down with a Stanley knife.

Hope this helps

Paul

Edited By Paul T on 18/12/2015 11:19:43

It`s also a good idea to remove the tape before the paint had dried

To allow the paint to settle down and avoid the sharp edge

Bob

Hi Anthony, i use different tape for different jobs, the paint edge with Tamiya for the paint edge, cheap tape to fill in and brown paper or plastic film to mask the rest of the area,

TOP TIP dust a fine mist of clear along the tape edge this guarantees a clean line

Mark

Anthony

I'm also in the UK and Frog is the best tape that I have ever used.

Paul