UNITED RC

Everyone,

I was very excited to have my BMW M3 GT body for my drifter, and I was going to replicate the white, black and red scheme on the hpi website.

It looks easy enought to do, using liquid mask, with very clean lines.

I was using liquid mask, and I put on, what I thought was "thick enough" 3 coats of the mask material.

The first cuts were made, and I proceded to paint the white color, using about 3-4 white paint coats. I then cut and pealed away the "red" section, and the liquid mask was somewhat hard to get to pull up (it came up in about 1 inch lengths, so this was very time consuming). The red was painted, again with 3-4 coats. The last cuts were were made around the window masks, but this time the liquid mask was impossible to get pulled up. It only came up in very small amount, and the paint was not pulling away from the previous paint line (where it was suppose to stay).

Needless to say, it very frustrating, so i ditch the project. either the mask was a pain to pull up, or the paint lines were not separating correctly.

So....what did I do wrong? I am thinking, from reading here, that I must have NOT put the coats of liquid mask on thick enough? Any tips on using rattle can paints (it what I used).

Thanks

URC

xacdesigns

yes, you definitely did not use enough liquid masking.

Another thing is I read you did the white first? Always go from dark to light whenever you can. Also try doing lighter coats as this may help with your masking not seperating at the cut line as well.

Good luck

fugadude

sorry to hear I have my first liquid mask project going now... hopefully I don't end up with total suckage too. I have some problems though the stuff I'm using is lumpy. Seems like there are dried specks in it.

UNITED RC

Thanks!

As far as the order of colors, I was alwasy concerend about doing dark colors first, because if I did black first, due to overspray, how would i see the black lines (sharpie on the outside of the body) to cut the next cut out? Black would make it hard to see the lines.

Thanks

URC

fugadude

Here's the progress on mine, does my mask look too thin? I printed out with my laser printer the designs I'm using and then cut them out and stuck them to the outside of the shell.

xacdesigns

I always do all my cuts first, then peel and paint. Doing it that way, you don't have to keep looking for the sharpie on the outside.

xacdesigns

fugadude, how many coats do you have on there???

UNITED RC

X,

Do you mean you always do all your cuts first, peel the section you are painting, paint. next, peal the next paintable part, then paint, so on and so on?

fugadude

I have 3 thick coats. I brushed one on, let it dry clear then brushed the next one on, let it dry ,and then finally the last coat.

UNITED RC

Fugadude,

Just one question, do you have enough electronic equipment in that office/room?

Good luck!

fugadude

This is my baby system... my other one I call the dictator control panel.

So is my liquid mask screwed up? Should I ditch this one and just peel it off and wait for my Bob Divley mask to arrive? It's got all those dried mask chunks in it I'm wondering if it's going to screw up the lines. I need them to be extra perfect because I will be using chrome to outline the graphics.

fugadude

If you do them too thick at once they separate and crack (I did another mask before used like 3/4s of an 8 ounce bottle. It was pretty funny I pulled a heavy latex ball out from it when I stripped it out to try again, it was a pretty big ball, a handful at least like a small orange heh)

fugadude

Ok here's what I've learned so far about liquid mask:

1. Sharp xacto knife is an absolute must. Change your blade out once per area of the body. One for the hood one for the door one for the other door etc.
2. Good eyesight is an absolute must. You have to ensure that where you've cut the mask you've cut all the way through and it connects to another cut. overlappign cuts are ok.
3. Use enough pressure with the xacto knife putting on the liquid mask after it dries will simply (from Parma) be a hard rubber substance like a ziplock bag/static sticker. Don't be afraid to press down on it in a firm manner.
4. 3 heavy coats means when you dip your brush in for each coat it is fully covered and thick you plop it on and spread it until the brush feels dry it wont spread more than a couple square inches at a time or like 3-4 brushstrokes. It's like glue.
5. You must allow the mask to dry between coats. I used a small fan and a rubbermaid tub to speed up the process. The mask will dry a bluish clear.
6. Have a clean rag prepared (one that doesn't leave dust behind such as a cloth diaper) use distilled water and wipe out the excess mask after you are done.
7. Use those eagle eyes to go through the whole body looking for any straggler bits of liquid mask crumbs left behind.
8. finish with the rag once over on both the top and inside the body to ensure you aren't thinking you just have some mask on the outside of the body.
9. Print stickers to the outside of the body to use as guidlines for when you cut the mask they help a lot.
10. Liquid mask is great for complex jobs but it sucks for straight lines. use masking tapes when you need those straight lines or precise edges.
11. the mask works great at 0.5 millimeter thickness when dried.

fugadude

I also think I may have borked my shell. I'm not at all confident this is going to come out nice. I don't like this feeling either!!!!

UNITED RC

well...you could always just scrap the mask, and do one color!

fugadude

Yeah I suppose I could do that, but I'm just going to go for it! haha If it comes out like hammered ****... well what can I say... I just have to try it.


I'm already scaling back the ambition of this project, and am only going to do side graphics.

UNITED RC

that looks pretty good.....keep going!

fugadude

I did another thing in all my excitement I forgot to mask the rear lights for the light buckets I bought. lol... smacks self... hard. Oh well stickers they'll get this is only my first skyline body. My next will be better. [sm=confused_smile.gif]

fugadude

I have to say the blue is amazing. Doing a candy blue pactra with a good coat backed with pactra indy silver is sexayy... I wonder if my camera can capture the color sexyness if not I can photoshop an equivilant I think. I still haven't gotten to the part where I'm going to lay the chrome down. I'm going to wait for it to dry real good I have it in the rubbermaid box with the fan and it's drying quickly. I figure in maybe 4 hours I'll give the chrome a go and start cutting the outline of the graphic.

wish me luck!

fugadude

so far so good the outlines are clean, could have done a much better job on my cutting. They are far from flawless, but I'm encouraged so far.

fugadude

The chrome has brought out all the flaws in my cuts, but I think the white will bring me back into balance. I'm not sure if the chrome has come out too well. I'm breaking a serious rule of mine and painting at night hehe. I'm exhausted from today, but I just want to finish this before I go to bed. I want to know if I can really do something with liquid mask. I think I can. I think I've learned enough from this experience to really nail it down. I think especially with the bob dively stuff I have coming this Parma junk I used this time was total garbage. I'll never again use a liquid mask that has lumps and specks of dry mask in it period.

fugadude

Oh I was going to say too post some pics of your botched body UNITED RC.

UNITED RC

Its already been thrown away.

I was replicating the BMW M3 GT black/white/red body scheme on the hpi website, but the red color killed me.

I am not using a Proline Cadillac CTX-V body : http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXHLT6&P=7

Going with a simple black and blu, with white trim look.

URC

fugadude

let me show you my result...



It came out better than expected.

rushevoross

veryyyyy nice