Washi tape report. These tapes just needed to be tested for their 'stickiness' as would affect the finish/paint that they are applied to. To test the 'mt' Washi tape I applied a piece of the two widths, 7mm and 15mm, plus an 18mm Tamiya tape piece, as a control, to the fuselage of my sacrificial bird. The tape to the raw plastic was to test their paint edge control. Got to love the colors selected!!
A full area spray of Tamiya XF-65 was applied and let set for a bit over an hour. I then applied the same tapes to the rear fuselage painted area.
After about 3 hours, A coat of Taymia XF-59 was then applied to the rear second taped area. I purposely thinned the paint, almost to the point where it was not covering, with the intent of possibly affecting the tape and/or the paint under the tape.
Zoom in if you wish, but other than the super thinned XF-59 migrating into the panel lines the tape edges held. And more importantly, there was no peel off of any of the first XF-65 coat. If I had really pressed hard on the tapes, where the panel lines bled over, I believe this two would have not happened?
My conclusion? Tamiya, while a great tape, has some competition. I will most likely continue to use the Tamiya brand on build areas where any screw-ups would cause major problems, but for those areas that are more forgiving; why use the high $ stuff?
I need to add that while the Washi tape, in my opinion, is good, it does not want to take any mild bending like Tamiya does.