Stripes of yellow paper 0,6mm

Six tenths of a millimeter

Below one millimeter masking turns into a different discipline. Six tenths is a width that practically nobody will cut straight with a knife and a ruler, and yet it is lines this thin that decide the plausibility of small scales. In 1:72 scale it corresponds to roughly four centimeters in reality: that is, the dimension of a dividing line between camouflage fields, of a thin outline around an insignia or of the border of a walkway on a wing.

Working with a very narrow strip

Narrow strips take less handling than wide ones. Always lift them off the sheet by one end with sharp-tipped tweezers and do not touch the adhesive side at all: a single fingerprint on six tenths of a millimeter means the loss of a substantial part of the tack. Degrease the base beforehand, because even a thin layer of grease will lift a fine strip. Use a soft wooden point to press it down; a metal tool will tear narrow paper.

Where it pays off

Hairlines have a peculiar quality: they come across on a model more convincingly than wide stripes, because the eye reads them as a detail of manufacture rather than as paintwork. They come into their own on the frames of small hatches, on the outlines of antennas, on the division of helicopter cockpits or on separating exhaust shrouds. On figures they can be used to suggest the edging of equipment. Fitting them makes sense only once the rest of the surface is clean and smooth; on rough varnish the difference between six and nine tenths will be lost anyway. It also pays to work in good side lighting, or you will easily overlook a strip this thin on a model and find out only after spraying.