I've had horrible luck with scotch tape on canopy frames! It left a nasty residue during removal and came apart in tiny pieces. I have an otherwise beautiful 1/32 Hasegawa F6-F whose canopy was damaged because I thought I'd try something different. Dumb idea. I stick solely to Tamiya masking tape.
-- david
Putting it on in tiny pieces is part of the trick - the other is to remove it immediately...don't leave it on even overnight. Paint, let mostly dry, remove.
It can become near permanent otherwise...but because of that, I've used it to make raised panels on relatively flat surfaces on occasion, and I'm thinking about doing the same for doing interior canopy framing on my next large scale build.
We were talking about two different things here. I didn't use scotch tape for masking. I used painted scotch tape for the actual framing. It doesn't matter about residue because it doesn't get removed.
Bill R
If you must use "magic mending tape" for masking, stick it on your forehead first before putting it on the model. The little bit of skin oil will minimize the stickiness the minimize the residue problem. Also, as Rufus says, remove before the paint is dry and by all means, don't let it stay over night. Voice of experience...
What I do instead of using tape is to s-l-o-w-l-y and c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y scribe/cut around the clear parts of the canopy after the canopy is installed/puttied/faired/sanded in and polished with cheap paper towel. I use a new #11 blade. Then brush "paint" 2 or 3 coats of liquid mask on the clear areas. This will make nice sharp lines and corners since the scribe/cut lines. Let dry. Spray your intended color scheme and don't worry how long the masking stays on. When all spraying/painting/decoration/decaling over-spraying is complete, gently go over the canopy frame edges again with a new #11 blade and then use a toothpick to remove the masking. Once all traces of paint/stuff are removed from the clear canopy portions, apply Future to the now clear/cleaned canopy parts.
Works for me....
Tom
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