Parma Paint mask question

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Greywolf74

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Ok So I'm not an expert painter yet with an airbrush so I bought my first parma paint mask set and I get the general idea of how you do it. I get that you have to weed it which I've already done and I get that you need to plan where your graphics are gonna go and all that but heres what I dont understand. I watched a youtube video on how to do transfer the mask to the inside of the car body but aparently XXX main gives you a piece of transfer paper thats as big as the original sheet of masking. Parma only provides you with one strip. Now I get that there strip is reusable but the main design for the mask kit is twice as wide as the transfer strip. Are you supposed to just cut the strip in half and use 2 pieces on it or how does that work exactly?

UPDATE: Ok so I tried cutting the transfer strip in half but the very tips of the edges were still sticking off the side. I ended up screwing the whole thing up.First off when I go to peel away the mask baking from the transfer tape parts of it dont want to come up....I have to go along as I'm peeling it up with an Xacto blade and help it come up off the paper. Then on top of that the design didnt work it crumpled and folded over on its self in certain areas where the body has alot of bends and curves in it. I tried laying it down in the middle first to it would line up and then smooth each side out as I went....It almost seems like the mask was made for a big ass 1/8 scale body and I was trying to use it on a 1/10 scale JConcepts Illusion body for my Rustler VXL.

Any insight into this would be appreciated. I ordered a new mask from XXX Main hoping I'll have better luck with theres but I still have another Parma one that I already bought for a different body but that will be a 1/8 buggy body and hopefully I wont have the same problems with that one.
 
i just bought some blank Parma masks and wanted to make my own design and wwas wondering the same thing about the transfer strip.
i will wait to use this until we get a answer
 
Now by no means would I consider myself an expert but I have used the parmas before and have never used the transfer tape. I have always cleaned and lightly abraded the body to have it ready for paint and will use latex gloves when I start laying down the masks bieng sure to keep all finger oils off the car and the masks. The parmas dont necessarily have adhesive as much as use a static adhesion to the bodies. As long as everything stays clean you shouldnt need the transfer tapes. Just my .02 I would wait for the likes of NC nitro to chime in as he is a great painter who probably knows alot more than most of us.
 
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I can't say I'm familiar with this mask stuff but it sounds like more of a pain than it's worth. Most of the more experienced painters around here just use liquid mask and cut our own designs. Now I understand that is not everybody's cup of tea but vinyl masks are the next best thing. I can't understand what this transfer stuff is all about. Is this an actual paint mask or is it an internal graffic that can be painted over once applied?
 
Its almost like an additional "window mask" but only clear. I guess your supposed to peel up the mask and lay it down onto this strip when transferring it to the body. For me its just another opportunity to rip and tear the masks. +1 for the liquid masks. I think newbies get a little scared when they see it but they do allow the imagination to flow as you can design anything you can trim out of it
 
The mask is basically teh same priciple as the window mask however they are usually very intricate designes and most have a 2 stage effect for example flames. You'll have basically a cut out of a flame that has a second cut out around that. the theory is you paint your main layer of paint then you peel the first outter section of the flame up and then paint that exposed part and when that done you peel up the internal part of the flame and paint that part. In theory you would end up with say a black body and then a flame that is say yellow in the center with a orange or red layer around it and then the basic body color.

Now to use them, whats supposed to happen is you lay the transfer tape on top of the mask and run something like a credit card over it so that it will be evenly stuck to the transfer tape. you then take peel the backing away from the mask.....this is where my first problem comes it....the mask doesn't come off the backing neatly. At least on the one I was working with it didnt. that outter layer kept wanting to stick to the backing instead of the transfer tape. As I was trying to peel it up I was going along with a hobby blade and gently lifting the stuck areas and using the blade to kind of stick it to the transfer tape as I went along. Once I had the entire design section stuck to the tape you're suppose to lay one end of it down on the inside of the case and gently work the vinyl design down onto the body of the car. The problem I ran into was when you finally get the design down all the places where the design seperated from the backing when I was trying to peel it up there was a slight gap between the two segments where they had been seperated....Now every place where you go over a crease or an indintation in the body amplifies this gap effect.

The next problem I ran into was doing the main hood piece. I ran into two problems with this. Parma only gives you a strip of transfer tape that is about 3 to 4 inches wide and about 11 inches long. the main design is about 5 inches tall by 6 inches wide. Not sure how that is supposed to fit on the transfer tape. I ended up cutting my tape in half which mostly did the trick expect the very edges of the mask where hanging off the sides of the tape a little bit. The real problem I run into though was when I went to put the graphic down there were so many ridges and creases and the design took up the entire center of the hood and would have wrapped down around on to the sides of the hood which would have been ok except parts of the design had huge gaps between the two sections and some parts kind of overlapped itself in certain areas as it was trying to wrap around down onto the sides of the hood section. It almsot seemed like that mask was made for a very wide 1/8 scale like touring sedan or MT body or something much bigger than the JConcepts Illusion body I was trying to use it on.

XXXMain has some of these vinyl masks also. I ordered one of theres to try because I think at least msot of these come with a sheet of transfer tape that is the same size as the page of vinyl cuts so at least it will fit over the entire graphic area. However, I've heard that these also soemtimes only come with a strip too depending on the design. The liquid mask I'm sure is great if you have some artistic ability and can draw and cut your own flames or whatever design but i have no artistic ability what so ever.

IDK I was hoping someone had some experience using these that could provide me with some insight as to how to properly use these.
 

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