Masking Over Metallic Paints ??

I have been having real problems when masking over aircraft painted silver/steel- the masking tape invariably pulls off some of the coating or sheen, and leaves an obvious mark where the tape had been placed. I typically apply silver enamels by airbrush, allow them to dry several days at RT and then mask locally for black nose cones, etc. I have also tried airbrushing with buffing metallizers, buffing, drying for 2 days followed by masking- I ran into the same problem. For my latest model I applied a clear-coat lacquer before masking, but the tape still pulled some of the clear coat and silver paint off.
How the heck do you guys get this to work ?
BTW- I use the blue 3M painters tape that is supposed to be low adhesion/non-damaging.
Regards,
John

Here's what I do, although my experience is with acrylics. Perhaps it will help anyway...
I just finished Hasegawa's 1/32 P-51D. I primed with light grey and let cure for 48 hours. I then used PollyScale's railroad stainless steel, thinned about 40% with distilled water. Application was several light coats, then polish with dry paper towel. I let this cure for 48 hours, then masked the anti-glare panel using Tamiya masking tape. Worked like a charm; no lifting, no residue, no marks.
My mustang, after a coat of flat clearcoat, is quite pleasing to me. I know other folks get a more "realistic" finish with Alclad or something like that, but enamels are out of the question for me so this is what I use.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,

John,
Metallizers will not allow a mask, period. Don't even try. Always apply metallizers as a last coat after you have masked over Alclad, SNJ or Floquil.
Alclad will do well with 3M *drafting* tape but not *masking* or painter's tape. Alclad does very well with Tamiya masking tapes.
SNJ does better than Alclad with the above.
Floquil railroad colors (lacquers) do better than Alclad or SNJ.
None of the paints will tolerate any kind of vinyl tape such as the Chartpak brands.
Art
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On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 18:31:51 -0700, "John & Shaw Perek"
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I've used Post-It notes- extremely low tack... it doesn't leave any residue nor does it pull off the coating or alter the finish like most masking tapes will.
The only downside is that application of post-it note masks is rather painstaking...It's easy for flat surfaces like wing panels, not so easy for curved areas like fuselages.
I've tried Tamiya tape on Alclad- and while Alclad is very tolerant of masking materials (the finish won't peel off if you apply the coats correctly) you'll still get an obvious mark where the tape was.
You could also try "de-tacking" your masking tape by applying it to a clean surface like a glass pane and pulling it off to make the tape less sticky. Then mask your model.
Sat

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I use the Tamiya masking tape with a little bit better results, but I still sometimes pull some of the metalizer paint off. I've even tried to pre-stick the tape to remove some of the glue, but then the paint runs under the tape line. If I burnish down the tape it will always pull some paint with it. If you figure out how to get good, crisp, nondestructive masking let us all know.

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Weathering and battle damage work pretty well!
Peter

in article bsbr5q$6ns$ snipped-for-privacy@bunyip.cc.uq.edu.au, Bushy at snipped-for-privacy@reply.to.group wrote on 12/24/03 4:56 AM:
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Used to be a real problem but now I use Alclad for all metal parts and no more lifting. Not even duct tape will lift that stuff!
MB

ive had pretty good results with scotch restickable adhesive (like on post-em notes) as i can control amount and tackyness (by letting it sit out if need be)