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Pretty much in the title here lads. Should I use higher tack tape? Or am I applying it wrong or what?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated as it is driving me loopy.

What kind of tape are you usually using? I never really have a problem when I use masking tape to cover areas as long as I put it tightly on there..

Are you using an airbrush?

I assume you're talking about airbrushing rather than hairy brushing?

You have to spray thin coats to avoid soaking the interface between the taped and non taped areas. You also want to make sure the overall thickness of the paint is not too much otherwise you get a slight raised edge and/or tearing of the paint when you remove your mask. I know some modellers who will very gently sand the area after removing the raised edge, I personally don't do that because I'm not as fussy and it can be a lot of work to polish it back up again

You also want to burnish the edges of the tape. Burnishing is to *gently* press down the edge of the tape. Best to do shortly before spraying. I sometimes just use the back of my finger nail to do it, though it's probably safer/smarter to use some sort of smooth soft stick like a plastic stick or wooden icey pole stick (avoid metal because you don't want to scratch or tear things). I have occasionally burnished tape the night before and then it's lifted slightly in the morning (usually caused by what I'm going to describe in the next paragraph). So it's best to do the burnishing immediately before spraying.

Unless you're using flexible tape, you also have to avoid the tape creasing (which happens when you try and mask a concave curve or you're trying to mask a composite curve which is decreasing in radius). You can sometimes burnish away the creases but it's best if you can just avoid them. If you are masking a convex curve, the creases will occur on the back side of the tape so won't be a problem, but when masking a concave area the creases will appear on the side where you want your hard edge, which is bad! 2 ways I've found to get around this. One is that when masking a concave curve, I cut thin strips of tape that can stretch more easily OR (and this works better but is harder to do) I cut a curve in to the tape which is equal to or smaller radius than the curve I'm trying to mask. If it's equal, you get no creases, if it's smaller, you'll still get creases but they'll end up on the other side rather than the side you want to create the hard edge.

If you aren't using an airbrush, those points still apply, just add to it that you want to do thin coats (as in the thickness of the layers) but you don't want to excessively thin the paint (as in, don't reduce the viscosity too much by adding lots of thinner).

What kind of surface are we talking? Smooth, textured, riveted?

I use frog masking tape whenever possible. I've never had a problem with a feathered edge from bleeding with it.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
What kind of surface are we talking? Smooth, textured, riveted?

I'm using it on my Eldar vehicles, so it's mostly smooth with the indented lines. But what is puzzling is that paint tends to be getting under the masking over the panels, as opposed to getting around the indentations. I am also using a spray paint over the masked areas, so essentially equivalent to an airbrush.

By "getting under", do you mean blobbing (wet) or misting, like its escaping slightly under and giving a fuzzy edge?

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
By "getting under", do you mean blobbing (wet) or misting, like its escaping slightly under and giving a fuzzy edge?

Fuzzy edges mostly with the occasional wet patch.

The simplest and cleanest solution is to put down a layer of clear once the masks are in place. Let this dry and then paint with the desired color. The clear will be the only thing to leak under the mask due to the capillary action and this results in an extremely crisp border between colors.

The more complicated, but more effective method is probably to negatively mask it (mask the part you want to paint), then paint over it with liquid mask or maskol, then peel off your masking tape and paint away.

kb_lock wrote:
The more complicated, but more effective method is probably to negatively mask it (mask the part you want to paint), then paint over it with liquid mask or maskol, then peel off your masking tape and paint away.

As much as I'd love to use Maskol or similar, I live in Malaysia, and I can't find it anywhere but ordering online is either too expensive or doesn't ship here.

kb_lock wrote:
The more complicated, but more effective method is probably to negatively mask it (mask the part you want to paint), then paint over it with liquid mask or maskol, then peel off your masking tape and paint away.

have you actually tried that? It doesn't sound like it'd work to me, as liquid masks are rubbery and come away in chunks so you won't get a crisp line when you remove the tape.

Anyway, to the OP, if you're spraying from a can my guess is you are flooding the model with too much paint. Make sure you burnish the tape as I mentioned in my previous post and spray very light misty coats, wait a few seconds between coats so that the paint doesn't pool and build up several light coats instead of heavy coats. That might mean spraying from slightly further away and moving the can faster so you get less paint on the model with each pass.

You need to take the tape off when it is wet still - it works, I did it in part on the black and white party coloured marine in my gallery (somewhere)

Light coats is the obvious answer though, it would be almost impossible to bugger it that way.

Ah ok, you'd have to pull it off pretty quick because that stuff (liquid mask) dries fast. I sometimes have trouble with an area drying while I'm still slopping it on and inadvertently lifting the half dried liquid mask that's already on there.

But yeah, I'm sure it can be done just by making sure your coats of paint are light and making sure the tape is burnished down. I use Tamiya tape on my fine scale aircraft models (where any flaws stick out like a sore thumb) and I manage to get very sharp lines if I follow a good procedure. Most my flaws come from forgetting to burnish the tape or trying to get it to flex more than I should (which causes the tape to crease and lift), if I avoid those things I can get pretty sharp lines with tape.

 TheManWithNoPlan wrote:

kb_lock wrote:
The more complicated, but more effective method is probably to negatively mask it (mask the part you want to paint), then paint over it with liquid mask or maskol, then peel off your masking tape and paint away.

As much as I'd love to use Maskol or similar, I live in Malaysia, and I can't find it anywhere but ordering online is either too expensive or doesn't ship here.

I wonder what it'd cost for me to post some to you

According to Australia post, it'd be around $20, plus $9 for the actual maskol - doesn't really seem worth it to me, but I'm happy to put some stuff together if you want

I use tamiya tape rather than other masking tape. It won't totally cure the problem but with light coats it should reduce it/also I find that it's best to use less water in the paint.