I’m working on a road, using the WS smooth-it product.
Will automotive tape stick to this? Or do I need to mask and paint the lines?
Don’t have an answer to this question, but i look forward to learning the answer.
Rich
Micheal, while I cannot say for sure I would say you have a 95% chances it will. I ran a body shop for years and if you get a good quality strip like 3 M it should stick fine.
I use 3 M #72001, it is white and has 2 white strip 3/16th wide.
Ken
Ken,
If possible, could you post a picture of this product in use as road striping?
I have been looking for an easy way to do double white stripes for my late 1950s era layout. I prefer to use 1/16" stripes for HO and your mentioning of 3M #72001 sounds exactly like what I have been looking for.
Thanks Ken!!! I just ordered that tape you suggested. I got the double-striped gold, and the single striped white.
Matt, I looked and I cannot find any pictures of the section I did. My photo shop is not working, so I cannot take any. Once you get good with it, you can make the tape make smooth turns. I guess I have pinstripe around 1,500 cars, so I am good with it.
If you look at the strip at the front of the car, you will see how it can be made to curve. I used a thicker strip, # 72301 Big is painted on.
Micheal, Gold? If the number is #72003 it is going to have metallic gold flakes in it.
Ken
line-o-tape.com,all sizes and all colors.
Ken,
Yes that’s what I ordered. I didn’t see any yellow that 3M offered, all they have is gold.
Oh well, I’ll be weathering it with washes anyways, so no big deal.
Just get yellow automotive pin striping tape at the local automotive shop. That’s what I use.
Rich
I tried that, and they didn’t have the 1/16th wide tape.
Yeah, 1/16" is hard to find.
Thanks to Ken’s tip, now I know about 3M’s double 1/16" stripe.
Too bad 3M doesn’t list a double yellow in 1/16". They have a single 1/16" stripe in yellow. Wonder why no double yellow? Maybe after few emails from the model railroad community and they might issue yellow [;)]
Scale Scenics used to offer a great road striping product called E-Z Stripes. Broken stripes in both yellow and white, solid stripes in both yellow and white, and double yellow stripes. They never made double white. The almost transitional double white road stripes seem to have been most prevalent in the mid to late 1950s.
Michael,
Are you doing a solid stripe the entire length of the road or dashed striping? How much length do you need?
Rich
When I used this material to do the roads for MR’s Bay Junction project layout, I sanded the cured surface to get it smooth enough. This raised a lot of dust that, even after vacuuming and wet-wiping, probably would have inhibited tape of any kind from sticking for long. Over time, tape’s adhesives start to give way even under the best of circumstances. I find most self-stick roofing material peels before long, for example.
What I did on those roads is to put strips of blue painter’s tape on a glass cutting board, then use a straightedge and a hobby knife to cut 1/16" thick strips of tape. I put these down the center of the road, then used slightly wider tape on either side of it to mask off a double line of 1/16" stripes. I painted in this line with white and yellow paint markers, then peeled up the tape.
Even if you could get the tape to stick solidly, in my opinion, it would look unrealistic IMHO because it would be slightly raised, perfectly uniform, and perhaps a bit shiny. Masking and painting left my stripes nice and straight, but uneven in coverage and realistically worn-looking.
Well I guess I can try the tape, if it comes up then I’ll just remove it all and paint it.
Steve, when you masked it, how did you get nice smooth lines on curves?
The road I’m building has a lot of curves.
Rich, I need the double yellow solid line for the middle.
Michael,
This is what you want:
http://masterstripe.com/striping/striping1.htm
Look for Single-Color Offset Pinstriping Tapes (Double Line) in Canary Yellow.
The stripes are each 1/16" wide with a 1/16" space between the stripes. You can form the stripes around curves with a little finesse.
Rich
Blue painter’s tape is a little bit stretchy, and if you’re dealing with strips of tape as thin as 1/16" or 1/8" (for the outside of the stripes), it will bend enough to lay flat through gentle curves. If your road curves so tightly that the tape kinks even at 1/8" wide, maybe your curves are too tight. Better put up a “SLOW” sign. [;)] But seriously folks, another option is Chartpak crepe tape. It’s made to stretch and bend, and you don’t have to trim it to width. You can find it at art and graphics supply stores, or order it online, in many different widths.
As for the yellow and white paint markers, which really simplify things, Sharpie makes them.
Steve, did you uses 3 M pinstripe? Cheap stuff you buy from like Auto Zone will fall off! Heck, I had to use some of the cheap stuff in a pinch and it was falling off one side of the car as I was working on the other side!
One of my cars has had 3 M pinstripe on it for 15 years now, none has fell off.
Cuda Ken
Go with Green Frog tape. Mask your lines off and airbrush. You won’t get any bleed under and you can vary the intensity of the color. The Frog tape shouldn’t pull your base road color up if it was laid down properly.
Use very light airbrush coats. No road lines have a constant color like a stripping tape product would give you.(skid marks/oil/weathering/etc…) IMHO…
This is a shot of a highway section that will go onto my bridge project. It is a plywood base painted in Flowquil Concrete, then scribed & lined with a Sharpie fine tip. The lines were masked & then shot with paint. [The Yellow was too thin, & collected against the mask, look close… The White was right!] Then I put it in a sink & used dishwashing liquid & an abrasive (scotch pad like) sponge to ‘distress’ the lightly painted stipes into the road to look like a real road, well maintained, but some slight wear. I will eventually add some powder as tire wear lines, & the cars are just in there for the photo effect.
I’m with CudaKen here, 3M is the best ‘I have ever sampled’, their lining tape is a vinyl product that is incredibly flexible, just don’t freze or over heat it, to the point the adheasive breaks down, kinda messy. The Tamiya tape is OK but can’t touch the flexibility of the 3M. With 3M it is one of those times you can say: “You can pay more, -but can not buy any better!!!”
I like painting the stripes because I don’t want the ridge of the tape on it’s own, but that is a personal preference…
Say, anyone here like the song ‘Road to Hell’, by Chris Rea? Spin it…
