How do you mask/paint checker?

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Kez

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2003
Messages
1,230
Another painting question. I want to do a checker pattern on a sport 40. An easy way is to cut squares from Monokote trim sheet and apply it to a base color. However most trim sheet will not lay flat on a crown surface (compound curve). Moreover, I am a purist ;-) and would like to paint the checker.

I think if I lay masking tape using the width of the tape as the pattern, I will need to mask it twice. The checker pattern may not line up well. Also, I would have to cut out the unwanted squares. I am not crazy about using an Xacto blade on a painted surface.

Any suggestions?

kez
 
Sign companies use tacking paper or film for backing on cut sheets. Maybe you could use it with masking tape. Then you wouldn't have to put the scalpel to the paint.
 
Hammerhead is on the right track,go to a "signs now",or "fast sign" vinyl shop, they can do you a checkerboard pattern in whatever

size squares and whatever size sheet you want out of "gerbermask",easy to apply after the first color is applied,reasonably priced

also,it will get you the quality you are looking for.
 
Thanks guys. I will look up some local sign companies first. If it works well on my sport 40, I may be able to do the Miss Barhahl (68-69 I think) as my next project :)
 
Brian, Thomas,

Thanks for the suggestions. Almost any decal meant for RC car is too small for a sport 40. It may work well on a .20 size boat. I have found that most decal or mask would not conform well to compound curves like the deck of a boat. I have used Monokote trim sheet on a flat surface with OK results. Even if I applied it to the wing of a plane, it creased between the ribs.

Another option would be to use masking film, of which I have no experience. Still masking film would require taking an X-acto blade to the paint and I am not crazy about the idea.

I have seen some stunning scale Miss Bardahl with the checker paint scheme. I wonder how it was done.

Thanks,kez
 
The masks are very thin vinyl made to conform to the inside of car bodies so they will easily conform to a boat hull.

It's a lot thinner material than monokote. They come with a backing sheet and a transfer sheet so you "weed" out the parts of the mask you don't want and then transfer it to the boat.

The large Parma masks are 8x10 I was thinking you could combine some checker masks to get what you want. Just tape them together. I think they make blank sheets as well that come with the transfer paper to make your own designs.

Here's a small sheet but you could tape together as many as you need. The flames are a mask as well.

IMG_0001.jpg
 
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