Dental Floss As A Masking Medium

[Rahn420]

I had some 3D printed padded corridor archways from Shapeways for my Deago Falcon.

Unlike the stock model parts, the pads are integrated into the arch rings.

I was trying to think of a way to paint them, without it being a big pain.

One day, my girlfriend was watching a cooking show where I saw a guy tying a roast.

It gave me an idea.

I painted the entire part with a 50/50 mix of Tamiya's Metallic Grey and German Grey.

I brush painted over the ring with masking fluid (the blue stuff in the photo) and trimmed it along the back of the pads with a knife.

Then, I used dental floss (waxed) and 'roast tied' it to mask the spaces between the pads.

I sprayed the pad base color, removed the floss and masking fluid.

I think it came out pretty clean, and I didn't have to go cross-eyed painting each pad.

 

[GMan68]

Genius!

 

[Analyzer]

That sure does look pretty effective!

 

[Sundowner]

That’s actually brilliant

 

[Jacobalcook]

Nice that worked awesome! Another way I've seen for similar parts, is to spray the whole the thing the color of the lighter pieces, then use enamel paint for the metallic thing, and use enamel thinner and a Qtip to remove it from the part that needs to be the original color. Your method seems a bit easier though TBH haha

 

[TazMan2000]

What temperature did you bake it at? Lol

Sorry, couldn't resist.

TazMan2000

 

[Rahn420]

What temperature did you bake it at? Lol

LOL! It's probably the closest thing to ANY culinary skills I possess.

 

[TazMan2000]

Actually, a more pertinent question would be what kind of dental floss? Waxed or unwaxed?

TazMan2000

 

[Rahn420]

Actually, a more pertinent question would be what kind of dental floss? Waxed or unwaxed?

Waxed.

 

[Rahn420]

This is another part I used the floss on.

I miss aligned a bit with the blue tape, but the flossed lines came out better.

(The white lines are where the arches need to be glued)