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  #1  
Old 10-09-2010, 09:37 PM
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AcroRay AcroRay is offline
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Default Masking a nosecone?

In building my Quest Striker AGM, I have to mask some areas of the Nike Smoke nosecone it comes with, to make a red front end, grey middle area and black lower section.

My question is, what's the best way to ensure a good mask at, say, the front end for the read uppermost section? Masking a body tube would be easy, but the sloped surface of the nose cone would be a bit more of a challenge to get straight...

Any advice?
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Old 10-09-2010, 09:43 PM
panja12 panja12 is offline
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well, you could try to make a ring around the nose cone with a very thin strip of masking tape, and then cover the rest with newspaper or something of suitable size to protect the part from overspray
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Old 10-09-2010, 10:31 PM
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Tamiya masking tape. It will stretch to allow you to follow that curve. Use 6mm wide on the color boundary, then any masking material for the rest of the cone.

I have not had any luck with it, but you might also try brushing on liquid masking material if you have a steady hand.


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Old 10-10-2010, 10:34 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AcroRay
In building my Quest Striker AGM, I have to mask some areas of the Nike Smoke nosecone it comes with, to make a red front end, grey middle area and black lower section.

My question is, what's the best way to ensure a good mask at, say, the front end for the read uppermost section? Masking a body tube would be easy, but the sloped surface of the nose cone would be a bit more of a challenge to get straight...

Any advice?
Masking is relatively straightforward. 1/4" masking tape will work. Wider tapes can be curved, too. A vinyl tape such as Great Planes EZ-Mask is the ultimate. It will leave a very clean paint line and curves easily.

The real trick is marking the line. Most techniques are susceptible to being off plane. Here's what I did to get a good line. http://www.doug79.com/stuff/nosecone-tip-marking2b.pdf

HTH.
Doug
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Old 10-10-2010, 12:05 PM
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Thanks, guys. Those suggestions should be really helpful!
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Old 10-10-2010, 01:52 PM
chrism chrism is offline
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Using masking tape as others suggested is a good method, also there is liquid masking that can be brushed on the areas that will be covered and it peels off when dry.
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Old 10-10-2010, 03:17 PM
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You can also use "Shroudcalc" to make a paper marking guide. I have used it to make the mask to mark up the Pershing 1a nosecone. Basically I have a little paper frustum that slides over the NC, mark the lower edge with 1/8th tape and then cover with 1" and paper. Works pretty reliably for me. If you can measure the diameter of each of the color breaks, and the dictance between the two, then you have a Shroudcalc that produces the marking guide.

http://rocketreviews.com/tool_shroud.shtml
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Last edited by jharding58 : 10-10-2010 at 03:35 PM.
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Old 10-10-2010, 03:31 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jharding58
You can also use "Shroudcalc" to make a paper marking guide.


Humn! That seems promising!
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Old 10-10-2010, 09:17 PM
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I've had good results using very narrow Tamiya tape from the LHS. It is pretty easy to curve., and Tamiya leaves the cleanest mask lines of any tape I've tried (most everything but the 3M from auto supply/paint stores., which gets high marks from those who've tried it).

A shroud program is excellent to generate patterns that can be used with the tape to provide close fitting masks for areas you do not want to paint.
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Old 10-11-2010, 12:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill
Tamiya masking tape. It will stretch to allow you to follow that curve. Use 6mm wide on the color boundary, then any masking material for the rest of the cone.

I have not had any luck with it, but you might also try brushing on liquid masking material if you have a steady hand.


Bill


in this case, masking tape would be preferred over liquid masking fluid because liquid masking tape requires cutting the "tape" after it dries with a knife, much harder IMO
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