"Vallejo paint and silly putty masking" Topic

I tried to use silly putty to mask a model for airbrushing.  Horrible reaction.  It seems Silly Putty is hydrophobic, and the paint pooled on the putty.  Not a big deal, however near the edges of my mask, the paint separated, and pushed away.  

Is there anything I can do, are am I just screwed?  I had seen this technique used on various airbrushing sites it seemed like a good idea.  

I thought the technique used the blue tack stuff you hang things from the wall with.

I use gaffer's tape -- blue painter's tape. Either that or poster tack. Silly putty is to slick and there is some type of chemical reaction that can cause leakage or funky colors.

I used the silly putty mask with no advers affects . Did you seal the base color befor appling the mask? did you use a tack rag to clean and finger oils etc from the model ?

Try kneaded rubber eraser. You can get it at art and craft stores.

Sorry to hear this went poorly. I've used this same technique with Vallejo and Silly Putty and had outstanding results. I applied the putty to a surface primed with Vallejo Air primer and painted two separate layers of camouflage using Vallejo Model Air colors.

I recommend trying again but make sure your surface is dry and clean – perhaps testing on some scrap first. Good luck.

I had a base of another Vallejo color paint I didn't think I would have to prime again. For grins, I tried a second coat, this seem to cover as expected. I'm new to airbrushing so my paint may have been too thin.

Never heard of silly putty being used for masking ? I've always used latex myself……but I'm open to something new.

@Windward – You are correct, the paint may have been too thin or the air pressure too high. Glad it worked out the second time.

I really like the technique and have used it to achieve hard edge camo on pieces as small as 15 mm.