Cutting plotter adhesive film appropriate for masking

[MRF]

Simple question - is there any?

[Kylwell]

Like vinyl stuff? Or are you looking for something lower tack?

[MRF]

I meant stuff like Oracal films, widely available in Europe. But thinner and with adhesive weak enough to be used as a masking tape. Finally I've found this and its dedicated masking film ready for plotting. A guy from this store said that if this ripps a paint off models, anything else will too...

http://www.fine-art.com.pl/en/20-cm-x-4-m-matt.html

We'll see .

[Kylwell]

Well you can now get Tamiya tape in sheets but that'd get costly very quickly. Usually people who use vinyl masks will stick it several times to clean glass before applying it to a model. I've also hear tale of spritzing the adhesive side with an ammonia based glass cleaner before applying. Stops it from sticking immediately and reduces adhesion.

[kenlilly106]

Back in the day I made several masking templates by plotting images in reverse on the back side of frisket film.

I'm an engineer by trade so I had access to pen plotters and AutoCAD, I don't know if you can still get frisket film and haven't seen a pen plotter in years.

Ken

[Richard Baker]

We use Gerbermask (about 3 mil with a special low tack adhesive) and 3M Scotchcal (2 mill with a good adhesive) here at work.
Oracal and Avery as good brands. High performance vinyls IMO are best- they conform to compound curved surfaces well and as long as the paint is dry there is no problem removing them.

These materials are part of any modern Sign Shop's inventory- there should be a number of them near to you locally. If you stop by and ask nicely you can probably get some scrap pieces to experiment with- most will also sell it to you by the foot at cost. We get somebody at least once a month coming in for this sort of thing where I work.