Stripes of yellow paper 3,5mm

A wide border without cutting up a roll

Above three millimeters begins the area where a mask is no longer torn along its length but rather laid as a band. Three and a half millimeters will cover the walkway lines on wing roots in a large scale, deck markings on ship models, the rims of hatches on armored vehicles and wide borders around national insignia. Unlike an offcut from ordinary tape, it does not have an edge frayed by a knife, so the paint will not get under it even after several centimeters.

Cutting to size

The strips are best shortened on a glass or cutting mat with a sharp, freshly snapped blade. A blunt knife drags the paper and frays the edge, which is exactly what a masking strip is meant to avoid. Cut in one stroke without going over it, and leave yourself a few millimeters extra at the ends to trim off after spraying: the ends are harder to lay than the middle, and a few millimeters of spare will save you that work.

What to do with large areas

On more extensive fields there is no point in covering the whole surface with the strip. Define only the boundary with it and cover the area behind it with ordinary paper, plastic wrap or liquid mask; the edge is taken care of by the accurate border of the strip, and the rest merely keeps the mist from settling. This procedure also saves material, because a flat area does not call for an accurate border.

When to go lower instead

If a border has to run around a curve of small radius, three and a half millimeters will start to wrinkle. It is then more sensible to lay two narrower pieces end to end with a slight overlap, or to go down a step. A wide mask is comfortable on a flat surface, but on a shaped one its lower pliability shows at once.