is making tape "paint-compatible"?

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Weslicon

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Hey there everyone! I'm going to put my final coat of paint on my custom Mandalorian helmet. I want to mask off certain areas with Blue 3M masking tape and I was wondering if that would peel up the primer or take it off in any way when I peel the tape off. Thanks
 
Masking tape like Blue 3M is designed for painting, or rather masking areas that you don't want paint on, so it should be perfectly fine. The primer has to be fully dry before you mask it off, though, and from that point on you'll want to wait until the paint is fully dry as well before doing anything with the tape.
 
Masking tape like Blue 3M is designed for painting, or rather masking areas that you don't want paint on, so it should be perfectly fine. The primer has to be fully dry before you mask it off, though, and from that point on you'll want to wait until the paint is fully dry as well before doing anything with the tape.

Krye's got a good point, usually with painting items though (going back to my Autobody knowledge) you'd usually want to at least your surface with 1500 - 2000grit sand paper. This gives the paint something to grab onto and adhere to because of the small fine "scratches". But usually you're pretty much ok with painting right on the helmet if it's a plastic cast. I did run into issues with the blue 3M tape on my first helmet. I didin't take my own advice, and painted directly on unsanded plastic. When I pulled up my masking tape, it pulled up the primer and paint I put down before hand. Though it sucked, it also gave to good weathering effects! So for me it was a blessing in disguise. I did notice that the 3M blue tape had different levels of stickiness, so you might be able the low stickiness kind. I had the medium level stickiness.
 
Forgot about the sandpaper thing, oops. Gotta try and think through the steps for painting props rather than Warhammer 40k tanks, haha. Another thing you wanna make sure is that the edges of the tape are smoothed down so the paint doesn't get up under the tape anyway. If you know how, and you have the means to do so, you can use any spots that the tape DOES pull up and turn them into wear/battle damage. Personally I use Citadel's Mithril Silver for it, but I imagine you can use practically in silver/steel colored paint for it(except maybe spray paints, but I've heard of people brushpainting with sprays, so I dont know).


@Ian: You mixed up the y and r in my name, friend. But because that actually kinda looks cool, I won't go off on you in a PM about it, haha.
 
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