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Make your own window masks

When dealing with older restorations, and older R/C car bodies, you are eventually going to run into needing to make your own window mask so you can properly paint the body. These are necessary only if you are planning on leaving the windows in the body of course. The method I am outlining below can be used to not only make window mask but also make your own masks for body graphics as well. Once you get you used to using this method you will find yourself using it to do so much more when painting an R/C body.


First and foremost, clean the body! Wash the body with warm soapy water and dry it. You will need some masking tape. The best, hands down for this type of work, is 3Ms blue painters tape. It is a coated paper that cuts clean like vinyl. Apply a piece of tape over the window on the outside of the body and use your finger nail to push the tape into the window outline in the body. Take your time and push it in good.


Next you will need a pen. A ball point ( black ink ) will work but an ultra fine tip Sharpie works about the best. Trace deep into to the outline around the window on the tape. Do not worry about getting a stray mark or two outside the line. this can be fixed later. Once you have the outlined traced in pen you will need to remove the tape from the body. Next you will need a piece of poster paper.




Remove the tape from the body and place it onto the piece of poster paper as pictured


Next using an X-Acto ( hobby knife ) carefully cut out the window shape. Hint: cut slightly inside the line as this will be a tracing pattern. That way when you trace around the window pattern it will be the correct size on the actual mask.  



Now repeat the above steps to make patterns for the rest of the body windows. Note: I only made one set of side window patterns. Most body's are close enough from side to side where you can flip the patterns over to reproduce the opposite side when making the masks.


For the next step you will need a sheet of wax paper. This can bought at any grocery store. Place the wax paper, waxy side up, on a flat surface. Place an ample length of tape on to the wax paper as pictured. Press is down making sure there are no creases or air bubbles between the tape and wax paper.



Then place a window pattern on the tape and trace around it with a sharpie or an ink pen. I usually trace out as many as I can fit onto the piece of tape. Note: You will want to flip the pattern over so it is face down on the tape. Remember the sticky side of the tape will be sticking on the inside of the body. Make sure when doing side windows you do a left side and a right side by reversing the pattern for one or the other sides.

You will than take an X-Acto knife and carefully cut out around the trace line. Stay on the line when cutting. You will need a new blade to do this without error. Once you have cut out the mask, use the tip of the X-Acto knife to separate the tape from the wax paper. Be careful not to cut yourself while doing this. Once you have worked your way between the tape and the wax paper you should be able to peel the two apart easily. Now carefully place the mask inside the body covering the window. That's it! Easy wasn't it? Cut out the rest and get them in place inside the body.
Once all the windows are masked your ready to prep for paint. Here is another little tip I'll pass along to you. To mask the outside of the body, first run wide 2 inch tape along all the bottom surface edge of the body, making sure you get it tucked tight into sharp corners. You can leave a little bit of tap hang below the bottom edge of the body as this will completely prevent paint from getting on the outside of the body along the bottom edge. Then use kitchen plastic wrap or a thin plastic grocery bag to cove the body and tape the bag or plastic wrap to the tape you put along the bottom of the body. Then go paint!


Once painted peel the mask off from inside carefully and your ready for some details and decals. Note if you are blacking out the windows you can remove the mask and spray black over the windows before unmasking the outside of the body.