Airbrush Masking Material – Application Tape

Application or transfer tape is used in the vinyl sign industry to transfer vinyl letters, designs onto a surface. It’s a paper tape that comes in varying widths and lengths with a backing with variable adhesives, sticking from weak to strong. Airbrush retailers in some case’s rename the product but it’s all pretty much the same, Sticky Micky is one such renaming of application tape. Sticky Mickey you can purchase below from Amazin for $29.95 a roll.

It’s also an ideal masking film for airbrushing or custom painting that happens to be fairly inexpensive to purchase and easy to use. In the example below you can see I’ve applied it to a helmet providing me with a surface to draw my design out onto. I pay $17.00 for a 15 inch wide, 100 foot long roll of application tape; with that much material you’re good to go for months.




This masking film or paper is better suited for flat surfaces but can be used on surfaces such as helmets with a little work to get it to lie down smoothly.The goal is to get it to lay as flat as possible with as few wrinkles as possible. Working from the center out toward the edges generally is the best technique to use to avoid wrinkles in the application tape.






Designs can be drawn directly onto the application tape with a pencil allowing you to change the design by easing and correcting your design by re drawing it.





Once your design is completely laid out you carefully cut the design out as you would if using Frisket Film and begin the painting process.


I hope you found this helpful. You can by application tape from most sign supply retailers.