Masking Techniques

[Dead Presidents]

 This has been a long time coming.

 Several mk painters have had great success and some not so great success with masking while using mk. 

Over the next several days I'm going to post the materials I use and the techniques I use to do my masking with mk.

 In the meantime, Feel free to share any tips or tricks you like to use for masking your toys.

[Michael McGowan]

Thanks for doing this, I think a lot of people will find this helpful.

[Dead Presidents]

Materials & Tapes I use everyday. 3M all the way!

Preparing for my masking tutorial.Tools of the trade for all of us at the factory. I'm posting this in between of coats of paint at the factory. I will keep posting and explaining as I go.  

Scuff Pads and Alcohol!!!!!

[eckotyper]

gonna help some folks out!... theres ways that i go about masking MK... i usually do it after its cleared and no probs :)... most of my customs have 2-3 coats of clear layered in the toy before its final coat... i dont mind... it works for me.

[Michael McGowan]

I approve the statement from Ecko, but I'll say I've started using a fast drying clear coat for my masking layers, and use MK clear coat for the final layer.  I've also found a really good liquid mask, and after some testing, I've found it works, great.  I'll post a specific brand name when I'm near it.

[Seth Longmire]

I tend to mask before the clearcoat.  I use Silly putty to mask areas I don't want painted, and tinfoil cutouts for negative spaces.

[Dead Presidents]

Both are great techniques Seth. I use the foil a lot over here.

Seth Longmire said:

I tend to mask before the clearcoat.  I use Silly putty to mask areas I don't want painted, and tinfoil cutouts for negative spaces.

[VaporFace]

I use a combination of transparent paper frisket and pinstriping tape (best shit ever) 

do not try liquid frisket (misket) with MK!  it DOES NOT work! 

I mask after a clear coat and then clear again afterwards..just cause I'm scared of pulled off paint.

[Dead Presidents]

I was talking to a resin painter recently. He was telling me he used "silly putty" to mask of eyes and other details. Once he's done painting peel off the silly putty and clear coat,etc.

I haven't tried but I encourage you to try and report back to us here.

[Bryan K Borgman]

Sounds like a great idea! I'll have to give it a shot!!

Dead Presidents said:

I was talking to a resin painter recently. He was telling me he used "silly putty" to mask of eyes and other details. Once he's done painting peel off the silly putty and clear coat,etc.

I haven't tried but I encourage you to try and report back to us here.

[mikie graham]

hello everyone,

as some of you may know, several years back i did a custom Mr. Sparkle Qee (from the simpsons).

it was very popular and i have been asked mulitple times to comission one, so i decided to do a LE run of 6 to sell.... only this time i wanted to upgrade my sparkle paint / gloss coat to Monster Kolor for a better quality product.

here is the original

as you can tell from the above image (not MK paint)  this figure is a masking nightmare, with each figure taking around 4 hrs to properly mask before spray.

i thought some people might like to know my process in case they are looking to do something similar.

After properly prepping the figure,  they each get a coat of the lighter pink color all over (except for the hands and text area on the chest and back which are masked)

once that layer has dried properly (MK seems to dry super fast!)  i use Tamiya masking tape from japan.

its yellow, its cheep (if you have a good dealer) its easy to bend and form non straight lines with... and it doesn't bleed (unless you really soak it with paint)!

On the left you can see the "tape master" that i am replicating on the figure on the right, i have found that this is a super important step when creating multiples that you want to look exactly the same.

i then go over all of my edges with a metal knife and make sure all lines have been pressed down properly to the figure, to avoid any accidental over spray

you can also see some of the some of the tape i use in the front of the shot!

after everything has dried properly its the fun part.... peeling off my tape to check out how they came out.

im prety happy with this batch of 4.... only a few small details to touch up

then i paint the text/images on his chest/back and give the whole thing several layers of clear coat to bring out that extra sparkle!

unfortunately i havnt gotten to that point so i dont have pix yet.

more pictures when i have them

-MG

hello everyone,

as some of you may know, several years back i did a custom Mr. Sparkle Qee (from the simpsons).

it was very popular and i have been asked mulitple times to comission one, so i decided to do a LE run of 6 to sell.... only this time i wanted to upgrade my sparkle paint / gloss coat to Monster Kolor for a better quality product.

here is the original

as you can tell from the above image (not MK paint)  this figure is a masking nightmare, with each figure taking around 4 hrs to properly mask before spray.

i thought some people might like to know my process in case they are looking to do something similar.

After properly prepping the figure,  they each get a coat of the lighter pink color all over (except for the hands and text area on the chest and back which are masked)

once that layer has dried properly (MK seems to dry super fast!)  i use Tamiya masking tape from japan.

its yellow, its cheep (if you have a good dealer) its easy to bend and form non straight lines with... and it doesn't bleed (unless you really soak it with paint)!

On the left you can see the "tape master" that i am replicating on the figure on the right, i have found that this is a super important step when creating multiples that you want to look exactly the same.

i then go over all of my edges with a metal knife and make sure all lines have been pressed down properly to the figure, to avoid any accidental over spray

you can also see some of the some of the tape i use in the front of the shot!

after everything has dried properly its the fun part.... peeling off my tape to check out how they came out.

im prety happy with this batch of 4.... only a few small details to touch up

then i paint the text/images on his chest/back and give the whole thing several layers of clear coat to bring out that extra sparkle!

unfortunately i havnt gotten to that point so i dont have pix yet.

more pictures when i have them

-MG

[Tony Mora]

What are the scuff pads used for?

[Dead Presidents]

Sometimes I use them lightly with rubbing alcohol to clean the mold release from a toy . Get's it very prepped for clean paint work.

Tony Mora said:

What are the scuff pads used for?