Chapter 2 - The use of masking fluid

Normally masking fluid is applied to conceal the unpainted model surface. Yet this time I will show its usage in the situation of joining and painting.

First of all, the masking fluid can be used as putty: Since it’s hard to polish any soft plastic surface, both gates and parting lines on this kind of surface can be easily concealed by masking fluid. The joint shield in the first picture looks like covered by a piece of cloth, which is actually done by multiple-layer masking fluid, and the result looks pretty smooth and clean. The other two look like works of a rusty hand, because they were finished as rush jobs by me for showing in this article.

The mixture of Mr. Hobby masking fluid and oil-based paint, it can be used as super dense model paint. This “Special Paint” can easily be mixed to achieve my desired colors, with high stickiness and quite good elasticity, it’s an applicable paint to soft plastic surface. The bottom two pictures illustrates applying the super dense paint onto the protective layer on the griffon’s waist, notice it’s very resilient and doesn’t crack when bent. That’s more than enough for display purpose models. Personally I believe the mixture ratio between masking fluid and model paint can affect the degree of stickiness and softness (The ratio used for illustration was approximately 1:1). And diluted by rubbing alcohol or solvent can change the result as well (As my personal preference, rubbing alcohol is a better option to dilute masking fluid and water-based paint, because masking fluid comes with gloss look, and rubbing alcohol can change the mixture to a dull look, whereas diluted by solvent produces more glossy result).

People asked me about the rub resistance of masking fluid, which I’m still have no solid answer for. It’s because most models I built are for display purpose only, therefore they seldom get changed poses or moved at all, and there is no telling if they are good against rub and scratch.

But I think the mixture of masking fluid and paint (Ratio 1:1) is about equal to regular masking fluid in most quality aspects. Meanwhile thanks to the great density of the compound, applying it normally generates very stick layer, so logically I reckon it should be excellent to be protective against damage. But on the other hand, regular model paint layer can wear off as time goes, or tiny pieces of the layer might fall apart by minor collision. In the case of masking fluid, once tear out a corner, instead of one piece the entire layer will be ripped off.

The griffon model showed in those pictures, the blue paint layer on its waist has been ripped off by my entirely couple of days ago, so it’s back to its original surface again. Just I stated, I started by ripping a small corner, then the whole thing followed, the entire process took no more than 3 seconds. So if you accidentally grind on masking fluid, the grinded area will not become thinner but produce a bubble, and it will spread later. As for scratch, because paint is blended with masking fluid, so it should be good against scratch. Everyone is welcomed to give it a try to see how resistant the layer can be, and the worst case scenario can happen is ripping off the whole layer!



P.S. Special thanks to Jackson for coming up with creative way to use masking fluid. Because this method is still experimental, Jackson admits there is room for improvements, but also it provides an option for model fans to deal with soft plastic surface painting. I recommend everybody to try this, and feel free to let us know if you have better ideas and suggestions!