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MRP (Mr. Paint) Cure TIme - Before Masking?


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Hi all,

 

I previously posted a similar topic, asking how long after using MRP lacquer paint as pre-shading panel lines before I another over-coat on top of it.  My experience is that this stuff is almost instantly dry. However, I need to do some extensive masking on newly painted MRP, and I wonder if anyone has had experience in masking after laying down MRP.  I'm guessing that if I wait a few hours, I"m probably good to go, using somewhat less tacky masking tape like Tamiya.  I just want to make sure I don't lift up the MRP with the mask when removing.  Since lacquer lays down so well, and seems  to bond to the plastic (or in this case, painting over REALLY well cured MIG One-Shot Primer (a month of cure on the primer)), I don't think I need to worry.  But...I've been wrong before.  

 

Thoughts, experience?

Edited by Curt B
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While I don't use MRP, I've been using Mr Color for years. A couple of hours is fine for masking; I do detack the tape on a cutting mat or the clean palm of my hand.

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46 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

While I don't use MRP, I've been using Mr Color for years. A couple of hours is fine for masking; I do detack the tape on a cutting mat or the clean palm of my hand.

 

That's kind of what I was thinking...thanks for confirming!

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In my experience, MRP is more forgiving than Mr. Color when it comes to masking.  You can pretty much mask over MRP right away, but with Mr. Color, I've found that you need to give it at least a few hours (I go overnight).  

 

MRP and Mr. Color and Alclad are 98% of my paint stash.  The rest is some vallejo and MRP water based acrylics that I use for brush painting, and two Tamiya rust colors that I use for creating pit/patina marks on metal.   

 

 

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I often mask Mr Color within minutes of finishing painting .  Especially in Summer where is seems to dry within seconds.  The only time I've ever had Mr Color be puled up by tape is where I've used hairspray underneath it to do some chipping .

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Thanks guys.  I decided that I’m going to give the MRP at least 12 hours before I do any masking over it.  I am 100% confident that that much time HAS to be sufficient...and it gets really dry here in the southern Nevada desert.

Edited by Curt B
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5 hours ago, Curt B said:

Thanks guys.  I decided that I’m going to give the MRP at least 12 hours before I do any masking over it.  I am 100% confident that that much time HAS to be sufficient...and it gets really dry here in the southern Nevada desert.

 

I always give lacquers 6 to 12 hours to cure before masking. I know its overkill, but better safe than sorry. Even then I have had problems, but that is usually (read always) due to poor surface prep on my part.

Now enamels are another story. Some will dry pretty fast, but I've had some, like Alclad's clear coats, that took over a month to cure.  Really nice finish, but man I was pissed at the delay in the build.

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Good point. 

 

Another thing to consider (that seemed to elude me when I made my previous post) is how long you plan on leaving the tape on.  This is a lesson I learned the hard way on my last build.   If you plan on leaving the tape on for more than a few hours and its more than just a simple square of tape (like a hatch), then its a good idea to let it sit for a couple of days.  Especially if its a complex masking job that will have lots of seams.  

 

The issue is not paint lifting but rather the tape itself creating artifacts at the seams and creases.   

 

My last model was Eduard's 1:48 MiG-21SM.  The build requires you to paint the shock cone before joining the fuse halves and building the rest of the airplane because it would be impossible to mask after the fact.   I primed with MrFinishing Surfacer 1500, let cure for a week while I worked on other things, then painted with MRP-32 (Russian radome green), land then masked the next day.  The tape came off a few weeks later. No lifting... but every seam and crease in the tape was now embossed in the paint.  It was a major pain to fix at that stage of the build.  

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Hey guys,

 

I've done some playing around with my own issue about masking over MRP.  I've successfully managed to do so with Tamiya tape within 10 minutes of completion of spraying MRP.  I haven't challenged the tape being on place for more than an hour, so I can't say I've done anything different than BaconRaygun noted...but being able to do a simple mask as fast as 10 minutes is amazing to me...  Thank you all for the help! 

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