Reddit reviews Tamiya America, Inc Masking Tape, 6mm, TAM87030

Looks great! If you want to get those straight, freehand lines nice and crisp, I would suggest this product. I use it on my Iron Warriors to give those perfect, straight hazard lines. It also won't peel up any paint when you remove it like other tapes are reported to do.

Not necessarily CC, but this product may help you get the crispest lines possible, for a bit of effort:
https://www.amazon.com/Tamiya-300087030-Masking-Tape-6mm/dp/B0000WRZZQ

Haha, that makes much more sense.

It's not hard at all, just takes a little more patience. You put masking tape over the parts you don't want colored, paint, then remove the tape. Repeat for each color. Just be sure whatever you are taping is completely cured or you might peel it up.

Regular old masking tape (The paper-like brown stuff) works fine, but I recommend stuff specifically made for modeling/painting like this: https://www.amazon.com/Tamiya-300087030-Masking-Tape-6mm/dp/B0000WRZZQ. It's smaller to begin with and has a smaller risk of ruining the paint job.

There are a few different ways to fill seamlines, with my preference being Tamiya Thin Plastic Cement. Filling seams should only be done if you want to paint, as you get to paint over the filled seam. As for masking, any small measuring tool is helpful. In addition, good Masking Tape can also help.

I think the stuff i use is 2 or 3 mm, but i cut it to be thinner for stuff this small.
Edit: It's 6mm. I use this stuff. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000WRZZQ/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I cut it into thirds for this one, but i may only cut them in half on the next one to get slightly wider stripes.

https://www.amazon.com/Tamiya-300087030-Masking-Tape-6mm/dp/B0000WRZZQ/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1479390004&sr=8-7&keywords=tamiya+masking+tape
Use this / they also have a tape for curves. It helps a ton and has low adherence so you don't have to worry about pulling paint up. I really enjoy the profile and the model itself looks cool to me but it's all preference. I do have to say it was the easiest tag to put together that I've done.

Most people swear by Tamiya masking tape (in various sizes), I picked some up from my local hobby store and it works pretty well.

Looking good so far! As the other chap said, i can't see any seams or nasty bits so well built!

This is where i'd go from here:

Painting wise, I'd go with thinning paints and doing several thin coats, watch this vid, i link it often. It shows how not to be down heartened with thin patchy paint on the first coat.

Get some thin tamiya masking tape to mask the edges between colours, mainly between the bottom grey and the camo upper. You can burnish it down well using a qtip or a tooth pick.

Once painted, spray it with a coat of gloss, I generally use Mr Topcoat gloss, but there are others. Make sure you mask the canopy when you spray it, else it'll fog. Then add the decals, possibly using some decal solutions like micro sol/set which really melts the decals down to the surface. Then spray again with gloss.

Once the gloss has cured, you can have a go at doing things like adding a wash, pigments, so you could make some exhaust and gun soot, streaks along the wings etc. Flory make some nice cheap water based washes that are quite forgiving for a beginner, as per their video here.

You can do some nice tricks with just using a pencil which gives the illusion of preshading, have a watch of this, it's a great video, the guy has a lovely finished model with hand painting!

When you're done, add a matte coat to it to flatten it all down, once again i use mr topcoat matte.

Get one of these:

https://hlj.com/1-144-scale-rx-78-2-gundam-first-grade-ban72385

Prime it with this:

https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/finishing/fine-surface-primer-l/

Mask with this:

https://www.amazon.com/Tamiya-USA-TAM87030-Masking-Tape/dp/B0000WRZZQ

Hand paint with these:

http://www.mr-hobby.com/en/itemDetail.php?iId=400

or

https://acrylicosvallejo.com/en/categoria/hobby/mecha-color-en/

Or spray with these:

https://www.tamiya.com/english/products/list/tamiya_spray/kit85001.htm

http://www.mr-hobby.com/en/itemDetail.php?iId=169

And top coat with either this:

https://www.tamiya.com/english/products/85080/index.htm

or

http://www.mr-hobby.com/en/itemDetail.php?iId=268

Once you're comfortable painting, get a cheap compressor & airbrush and experiment with various acrylics, lacquers, etc.

> So it can be easier to work with but it's not a huge difference as the idea is still the same.

Completely disagree

Painters tape and modeling tape are WORLDS apart. Modeling tape is thinner, has less tack, leaves a sharper edge and is also slightly flexible.

I highly recommend Tamiya Masking tape

http://www.amazon.com/Tamiya-87030-000-Masking-Tape-6mm/dp/B0000WRZZQ

Use it on the edges and then you can use regular masking tape to mask the rest of the part