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Old 4th Nov 2018, 10:21 am   #6
Radio Wrangler
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,801
Default Re: A stripey conundrum...

There is masking tape for striping. You run a strip of tape along where you want the stripe to go, then you unpeel a centre strip revealing the surface you want to paint in a perfectly spaced gap.

Sounds simple?

There's a drawback. Masking tapes don't completely cover the surface, the underside is wrinkled to leave tiny airgaps so that it can be more easily peeled off, and the wrinkly tape is more steerable in application. Paint goes under the tape and adheres to the surface. You get an unsmooth edge also you get bobbles of adhesive along the edge where the centre strip was unpeeled.... more unsmoothness. Then you remove the outer strips of tape you get a hard edge with a ragged finish if you look closely.

Use a thick paint to stop it going under into the wrinkles and you get a taller ragged edge.

Use a thin paint so the step of the edge is less, and the paint penetrates better into the wrinkles and spoils your edge that way.

To produce a high quality finish to a stripe, coach painters use a thin but very long brush. Think of a small artist's brush but with bristles around 10 inches long.

This is dragged across the surface/ it takes a steady hand to get the trajectory right.

THis takes practice on a bit of material that doesn't matter. It may take a few goes on the final surface, so the final surface needs to be hard dried so cleaniing with a solvent doesn't harm it if you're quick.

Three tricks:

Arrange a bit of temporary surface so you have a good long run up to the bit that counts so you can get the brush straight and going before the real job.

Arrange a temporary surface as a run off after the bit that counts so you can keep the brush running straight until the very tip leaves the job in the proper direction.

You can arrange a smooth guide to run your hand along to get better overall straightness.

Back in the day, those coachlines would have been put on in a matter of seconds by someone doing it freehand, cabinet after cabinet.

When you've mastered the straight ones, move onto curves, recurves and finials

David
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