3M No.471 Blue Tape
Reviewed by Rato Marczak (6/2009)

Summary
Description: 
- Vinyl adhesive tape (no product #471)
Scale: 
- N/A
Price: 
- approx. 5.00-10.00 USD (depending on the width)
Contents & Media: 
- Bag containing one roll (30 m)
Advantages: 
- Very flexible
- Solvent resistent
- Can be used for
rescribing
- Moderate tackiness
Disadvantages - A bit gooey adhesive
Recommendation:
- Highly recommended.



I was first told about this tape by Sandro, from GBUP and ordered my samples from Chao Airbrush Studio. This is a vinyl tape of the type used by car/bike customizing shops for pinstriping. They are available in 30 m rolls of four widths (2, 3, 4, and 5 mm). Being vinylic, they can be stretched and curved as you press it on the surface, producing flat curves where other regular hobby tapes will wrinkle. Although flexible, it still can be used for rescribing, with the advantage of allowing non-straight panel lines - something very difficult to accomplish using the old Dymo tape.



Vinyl is solvent resistend, even for lacquer thinners. My only complain about this product is its relatively low tackiness. If, by one hand, you can mask everything without any concerns (
except if you are shooting a review video! Oh well...), on the other side it is difficult to produce perfectly sealed overlaps like we do with Tamiya tapes.




I'm convinced this tape can be used to avoid the boring job of cutting curved masks from wide tapes, saving some precious time during camouflage painting. It is just a matter of following the desired pattern by freehand. The down side, in my opinion, is the somewhat gooey adhesive. I do not recommend to leave it on painted surfaces for too long.


And yes, of course you can also use it as a conventional tape - holding parts together.

Recommended.


Rato Marczak © 2009