Painting go faster stripes

I am currently spray painting a bike (2 pack paint) with two stripes that flow between the head, top and seat tube ( to make the bike faster)- pictured. In this case I painted the white first, applied the masking film and then sprayed the blue over the top. I am not very happy with the result as the lines are not very crisp and blue bled under the mask onto the white- this is as good as I could get it after cleaning it up somewhat.

Attachment 72074

Does anyone have any good techniques for doing this as I have struggled with exactly this before? The problem is that I found it very difficult to get the tape to stick where there is the compound curve of the two tubes and the fillet braze. My technique here was to use a vinyl - Oramask 810, cut on a vinyl cutter- to do the stripes either side of the fillet braze and then use a few strips of fine lining tape (3M blue) to do the line over the fillet braze. Often the tape looked like it had stuck but came away when I sprayed over the top. I also found it very difficult to keep the width of the stripe even as it went over the curve. It's all a bit difficult to put into words.

Any tips would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Jake Rusby

For painting plastic models I have heard of the following technique, but I have never tried it myself. I'm curious if others do this:

For the sake of your project, I'll use your colors & stripes as I explain it:

1. Paint the white first.
2. Lay down your making tape
3. lightly spray over the tape with your white tape. The idea here, is that any seepage under the tape will be the same color that you are protecting. At the same time, you are sealing up the edges of the tape from future seepage.
4. Spray your other color
5. Remove tape.

The key difference here being step 3, where you take measures to seal up the tape edges from seepage.

Look to other websites that discuss detail painting techniques, and see what you can apply to your project from other activities that require fine detail painting like model building.

Good luck!

Fixed this for you-

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Originally Posted by Michael Gordon

For painting plastic models I have heard of the following technique, but I have never tried it myself. I'm curious if others do this:

For the sake of your project, I'll use your colors & stripes as I explain it:

1. Paint the white first.
2. Lay down your making tape
3. lightly spray over the tape with your white paint. The idea here, is that any seepage under the tape will be the same color that you are protecting. At the same time, you are sealing up the edges of the tape from future seepage.
4. Spray your other color
5. Remove tape.

The key difference here being step 3, where you take measures to seal up the tape edges from seepage.

Look to other websites that discuss detail painting techniques, and see what you can apply to your project from other activities that require fine detail painting like model building.

Good luck!

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Michael Gordon

3. lightly spray over the tape with your white tape. The idea here, is that any seepage under the tape will be the same color that you are protecting. At the same time, you are sealing up the edges of the tape from future seepage.

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I've never done this step- sounds like a very good idea! Thanks a lot.

Jake Rusby

Perhaps I should also have said that I am wondering if there is a way to get a single bit of tape or vinyl to stretch over the curve of the tubes? This would avoid me having to use multiple pieces, which has made the line uneven in places.

Jake Rusby

Fine line isn't very thin so can be kinda hard to get it where you want it on those curvy bits. Try a thinner vinyl mask from your local sign writer, they usually keep a nice thin vinyl for this application. Very light paint application is also your friend, you just need coverage, the clear top coat is where the protection is.

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Originally Posted by rusbycycles

Perhaps I should also have said that I am wondering if there is a way to get a single bit of tape or vinyl to stretch over the curve of the tubes? This would avoid me having to use multiple pieces, which has made the line uneven in places.

Jake Rusby

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No, you had the right idea, just work on your paint application.

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Originally Posted by Craig Ryan

No, you had the right idea, just work on your paint application.

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+1

Different paint products work differently on projects like this. Some leave a really nice mask line, some do not. You have to learn what works best with the product that you are using. The trick noted above to spray the base color (white in this case) again, after applying your masks is a good and important one....its practically a requirement for some base colors (like Auto Air Colors, for example). Film build is also a consideration. The more paint that builds up on the edges of the masks, the more likely it'll be that you'll end up with a ragged edge. Some paints allow you to carefully rub off a film build ridge for a crisper edge, others not so much. Again, a huge part of painting is about the learning curve with the products your using. Like anything else, the more you paint, the more you'll learn and the better your results will get, etc.

Also, you can go back after clear and clean up those edges. It's common for even the most experienced painters to do this from time to time. ie....spray your clear coats, sand out the clear, spot mask along the rough lines, airbrush, clear again, etc.

Dave

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Originally Posted by Dave Anderson

... airbrush.

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Negative masking over curved fillets, lugs, tube transitions will always present difficulties with seepage and edge lift. If it were me, I'd lay down the base, clear, then tape and airbrush the stripes.

Better control of the direction of spray, lighter coats with less air pressure reducing the probability of edge lift, and easier to clean up small imperfections without affecting your base.

Dave is spot on...the more you paint, the more you learn.

rody

for me, anything less than roughly half the surface of the frame masked or not, is airbrush time.

Jake, good ideas above. Another thing to consider is laying the edge with a narrow tape, then backfilling with wider tape to cover the area. When I lock a layer of base down with clear I make sure to give it lots of dry time, then hit it really slow and light. It can boil up on you. I use Iwata LPH80's for anything larger than a quarter unless it's art. Gem of a gun and uses very little air.

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Originally Posted by Craig Ryan

Jake, good ideas above. Another thing to consider is laying the edge with a narrow tape, then backfilling with wider tape to cover the area. When I lock a layer of base down with clear I make sure to give it lots of dry time, then hit it really slow and light. It can boil up on you. I use Iwata LPH80's for anything larger than a quarter unless it's art. Gem of a gun and uses very little air.

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Craig,

What tip size do you prefer on your Iwata LPH80?

Thanks,

Jeff

Jeff, I've got two, a big one and a little one. One with each cap size if I recall. Shoot all my base with them, no clear.

I shoot all my clear with an Iwata LPH80 with a 1.2 orifice. It's a nice gun.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Craig Ryan

Jake, good ideas above. Another thing to consider is laying the edge with a narrow tape, then backfilling with wider tape to cover the area. When I lock a layer of base down with clear I make sure to give it lots of dry time, then hit it really slow and light. It can boil up on you. I use Iwata LPH80's for anything larger than a quarter unless it's art. Gem of a gun and uses very little air.

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+1 again. One of the interesting things about painters and painting is that there are a LOT of different ways to do things and none of them are necessarily right or wrong. What works works, etc. I know a very good bike painter that uses an air brush for everything but the final clear. Whereas, similar to Craig, I only use an airbrush for touch up and fine detail work. Everything color usually goes on with my DeVilbiss HVLP with 1.0 tip. I also don't generally put clear over a base on a multi-color job until after all the colors are on, but it can vary depending on the product. For example, for the Venge below, I sprayed the black, masked the lettering and black areas, then sprayed the silver, masked the silver areas (without removing masks from the black areas), sprayed a white base, sprayed bass boat sparkle over the white, removed the masks, cleared, sanded everything smooth and then did a final clear. It worked because the urethane base products I used go on thin, with good coverage and crisp mask edges (24 hour top coat times also help). With another product, I would use a different technique. For example, with Auto Air colors, or House of Kolors I would likely have used an intercoat clear between some if not all of these color coats, etc. It usually works best, for me, to paint dark colors over light colors, however, in this case that would have meant more challenges with the masking, and solid white covers darker colors pretty well. Had this been another light color I might have put it down first to reduce the number of coats needed for good coverage, etc. (For example, for a yellow or bright blue I would probably have sprayed the primary base over a white or tinted sealer and then masked and sprayed the darker colors over that, etc.....) As always, its a YMMV thing and these are just things that work for me, etc.

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