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