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Masking wheel wells/landing gear bays


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I don't know if this is the fastest way to do it but I always paint the plane first. I then add thin strips of tamiya masking tape around the the perimeter of the wheel bays and then wider strips outside my thin strips until I have enough masking tape over the area to protect from overspray.

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I've found blu-tack to be more effective than paper towel as you can shape the blu-tack a lot more easily.

If you give it a go, make sure your wheel well paint is completely cured and remove the blu-tack as soon as the airframe colour is touch dry. If you leave it, it'll adhere to the wheel well and become a pain to remove all the little left over bits. I'd say no more than 48h from apply to remove. Give or take.

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If they fit half way decent, use white glue to temporarily glue in the doors. That way you mask the wells and paint the doors in one shot.

As Grey Ghost described, I tend to test fit the bay doors, if I can fit them on with out any problems I first paint the wheel wells and the inside of the doors with the what ever color is required then glue them in place with white glue. Then paint the exterior of the model.

If the door can not be put on the model with out cutting, then I use the wet tissue technic. It easy and it comes out with out any issues when painting is complete.

Regards,

Robert

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Thanks for the replies...

I ended up spraying the wells first. Then i masked them off using a mixture of tape and blue/tac. The a/c main colour was then sprayed.

The shape of the wells aren't exactly regular, so, in spots, where some of the blu-tac or tape didnt sit flush there was ever so slight overspray which im sure i can clean up with a brush.

I think ill continue to use this method, but may well give the wet tissue a try too!

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I find that wet paper towels make excellent masks for wheel-wells and open cockpits. Soak some paper towels in warm water, tear off a tiny clump and stuff it in; it will settle down into the masked area, and can be worked with so it will conform to the shape you need. Spray, then remove. It's cheap and easy (like the kind of girls that are definitely more fun to date!) I have never once had a problem using this method.

I don't like using Blue-Tac for this because it can leave a residue that's sometimes hard to remove, it can also occasionally bond to the paint in a weird way that leads to serious touch-up headaches, and if you're not extremely careful when putting it on, bleed-under can be just as bad, or worse, than some types of masking tape. That's been my experience at least.

HTH

Cheers

Old Blind Dog

Edited by Old Blind Dog
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