Painting fine lines

[graemevw 823]

I seem to be posting alot of questions recently, wanting to try new stuff that i have no real experience in!

The paint job im planning requires 2 colours separated by a pinstripe. I want to make this as neat as possible.

I keep thinking about how im going to do it but am unsure which way has the best chance of success.

It will be black and red separated by a thin pinstripe of blue. Pinstripe wants to be 0.5mm thick maximum.

Its all curves too!

First thought was to paint one colour, mask out the pattern, paint the second colour, then try and pinstripe the join. Im not convinced my brush skills are good enough to lay out a line that thin though! What kind of brush would you even use? Most lining brushes I've seen look too thick. Id guess most lines will be 20-60mm long. I thought about trying to get some 0.5mm blue tape, but id rather it was paint as i want to clear and polish over the whole lot after. Tape would be tricky at the joins though, of which there would be many! Tight radius too.

I thought about using some kind of paint pen but ive not found one with a tip that may work, coverage may not be great with one coat over such dark colours, and again, worried about neatness. May be easier than a brush though, if a good enough pen was available.

My 'go to' idea at the moment is to paint the blue, mask out the design and paint one main colour. Then remove the masking and mask again 0.5mm away to leave the thin blue pinstripe before painting the second colour. Obviously lots of masking accuracy and bleed through danger with this though.

Ive not used liquid mask before but was thinking of maybe doing the very edge of the masking with that and cutting the final design edge with a scalpel.

I think, out of all the options, using a scalpel to cut a line 0.5mm away from another is the most likely for me to succeed at.

As this really isnt my area of expertise though there may well be other ways of doing this i dont know about, or issues im unaware of.

I did think about using masking film (ive seen frisket) and using it instead of liquid mask,  but im going to be using solvent paints and i read they can effect the glue.

Ive been running this whole thing through my head over and over again for weeks now and nothing is striking me as definately the best way that im sure i can do. Anyone got any thoughts?

[t3garett 268]

I do all my pin lines by masking with normal masking tape and cutting the lines after drawing it precisely. I use an exacto type scalpel. If you want To do this you need a very good Blade minimal pressure and lots of practice . Practice cutting straight lines in masking tape you Will be surprised how fast you ll progress. Remember to hold the scalpel as far from the Blade as possible and angle the Blade down in the direction of the cut.  

[graemevw 823]

3 minutes ago, t3garett said:

I do all my pin lines by masking with normal masking tape and cutting the lines after drawing it precisely. I use an exacto type scalpel. If you want To do this you need a very good Blade minimal pressure and lots of practice . Practice cutting straight lines in masking tape you Will be surprised how fast you ll progress. Remember to hold the scalpel as far from the Blade as possible and angle the Blade down in the direction of the cut.  

Thats good to know. I think my knife skills are up to it, i have concerns with tape though. Bleed would need to be eliminated. Also concerned about cutting intricate curves over tape joints. Thats why i thought about masking the last few mm with liquid mask and cutting the design into that.

Mr masking sol r says its good for cutting designs into.

[Bromley 681]

I'd go with painting the pin stripe colour 1st, then mask it of with tamiya 2mm masking tape, as it conforms to compound curves and irregular surfaces very well. Mask one side of the line fully, paint it, then mask the other side removing as much of the 2mm tape as you want to with a scalpel. Then spray the final colour.

[WillyChang 1814]

Don't use paper tape for such thin lines... use vinyl. Pro paint shops have a vinyl edging tape they use for pinstripes or you can try cutting some yourself... PVC tape, apply to a glass or ceramic tile & slice it with 2 razorblades held together.

Some ppl use Bare Metal Foil as masking too, I hear.

 

There's also Kyosho's Micron fine line tape. Meant for decoration on outside its a thin crepe tape. Not sure how hard or easy it's to find these days.

 

But hang on... r u thinking of masking a 0.5mm line *or* the inverse of a 0.5mm line? As in 2 lines of tape leaving a 0.5mm gap to paint in  

[graemevw 823]

Im doing flames, so two outlines will come together over a long thin point. Not sure i can achieve that in tape without overlap, which may cause bleed.

Ive read good and bad things about liquid mask too though.

I think masking is probably the way forward rather than trying to paint them after.

Ive been looking at outlining brushes but i cant find anything that looks fine enough to even attempt to try and use.

2 minutes ago, WillyChang said:

Don't use paper tape for such thin lines... use vinyl. Pro paint shops have a vinyl edging tape they use for pinstripes or you can try cutting some yourself... PVC tape, apply to a glass or ceramic tile & slice it with 2 razorblades held together.

Some ppl use Bare Metal Foil as masking too, I hear.

 

There's also Kyosho's Micron fine line tape. Meant for decoration on outside its a thin crepe tape. Not sure how hard or easy it's to find these days.

 

But hang on... r u thinking of masking a 0.5mm line *or* the inverse of a 0.5mm line? As in 2 lines of tape leaving a 0.5mm gap to paint in  

Sort of neither of those options.

I was thinking of painting the body area blue. Masking the design and painting the black so the area is now half blue and half black, then remove all masking. Then remask 0.5mm away from the black and paint the red.

I cant think of a good way of leaving a 0.5mm line of mask as i would then need to mask of each side when doing the other colours and i dont like the idea of trying to leave a 0.5mm gap to paint the blue.

Doing each side of the pinstripe at seperate times seems much easier to me.

[t3garett 268]

Are you painting with can or airbrush ? 

With airbrush you Will not get bleed if you build the paint layers gently.  

[WillyChang 1814]

Bear in mind not to break the cardinal rule - don't paint lighter colours (eg red) over darker (eg blue or black). 

That's for ABS; reverse for lexan painting from behind.

If you must paint red over blue, you should add a layer of white before red.

[graemevw 823]

Ill be using an airbrush.

The whole front will get a white/yellow/orange/red fade so ill base over the blue once or twice before it gets its final red fade.

[ncpantherfan71 133]

Are you painting a hard body or lexan?

[graemevw 823]

22 minutes ago, ncpantherfan71 said:

Are you painting a hard body or lexan?

Hard body

Not sure id attempt this inside out 😂 

[ncpantherfan71 133]

Paint blue where you want your pinstripe,  use thin vinyl tape the thicknes6od stripe you want, mask off top or bottom, spray next color, damask and mask other color but leaving vinyl tape for pinstripe, paint the last color.

 

It is more work and will take more time waiting for each color paint to dry, but it will give you a straight line.  The trick is finding tape the thickness you want your pinstripe.

[Shodog 1835]

Pinstripers use a squirrel hair brush’s. Once wet with paint the width of line is dependent on the pressure you use. There are several YouTube videos you can watch to see their technic. 

One little tip I’ve used when making paint cuts is once I lay the vinyl tape down I seal the edges by lightly misting with clear paint. This makes for a sharp line.