Hasegawa Mirror Finish Film - anyone tried it?

[Ben Brown]

Has anyone tried this stuff? Is it a mirrored adhesive backed Mylar instead of foil? I’m looking for something to replicate chromed stripes on an upcoming race car model. I'll need to cut them to ~3mm wide and they'll run the length of the car. I’m looking for an alternative to Bare Metal foil, which wrinkles too easily. I’ve never been able to get the stuff to look halfway decent.

Thanks!

Ben

[Bainford]

Interesting. Never heard of it, but just checked it out. Interesting stuff, available in many colours. I can’t tell if it’s a foil or mylar. None of the reviews say, but it appears more flexible than I would expect of mylar. 
 

For your chrome stripes, Line O Tape offers their pinstripe tape in chrome. It’s available in widths up to 1/8”, which is .007” (about 3/16” in 1/25 scale ) wider than 3 mm. I have some of the 1/64” chrome tape and just measured its thickness at .0035”, or 3 1/2 thou. It’s a mylar type tape. 

Edited March 25, 2021 by Bainford

[GeeBee]

It's totally different to BMF, it's a vinyl, you need to be careful with it, it seems to loose the shine if you stretch it too much.

[Ben Brown]

Thanks! It sounds like something that will work for what I need to do. I'll order some and play with it. At the least, I'll be able to use it for rearview mirrors.

Ben

[Rick L]

That is cool stuff. I’ve recently ordered a 2.5 mil metalized film tape from Uline and will report back with the results. 

[ChrisBcritter]

I asked about this stuff last October; answers were less than encouraging:

 

[Ben Brown]

Thanks for the replies! I went ahead and ordered some from Amazon to play with ($12) and it's sitting in front of me right now. I'll play with it this week to see if it will work for what I'm hoping to do with it.

Ben

[Dodge Driver]

On 3/25/2021 at 3:48 PM, Bainford said:

 

For your chrome stripes, Line O Tape offers their pinstripe tape in chrome. It’s available in widths up to 1/8”, which is .007” (about 3/16” in 1/25 scale ) wider than 3 mm. I have some of the 1/64” chrome tape and just measured its thickness at .0035”, or 3 1/2 thou. It’s a mylar type tape. 

According to Google,  Line-O-Tape is "Permanently Closed ". You may consider stockpiling should you have a preferred product. 

[stitchdup]

If you look in the nail art section of amazon theres chrome tape available. It comes in various chrome colours and is dirt cheap

[Bainford]

30 minutes ago, Dodge Driver said:

According to Google,  Line-O-Tape is "Permanently Closed ". You may consider stockpiling should you have a preferred product. 

Cheers, Frank. That's a shame, they had some cool products.

[Dodge Driver]

2 hours ago, Bainford said:

Cheers, Frank. That's a shame, they had some cool products.

Yes, definitely a loss.  I had hoped to pick up some narrow width masking tape.  It was out of stock everywhere I searched.         Back to the old razor blade and glass plate for me ?.

[Bainford]

46 minutes ago, Dodge Driver said:

Yes, definitely a loss.  I had hoped to pick up some narrow width masking tape.  It was out of stock everywhere I searched.         Back to the old razor blade and glass plate for me ?.

I recently purchased some Aizu thin masking tape from Hobbylinc Japan, available in a few narrow widths. Haven't tried it yet, but the stuff has good reviews. The other tapes below are from HLJ as well, including Tamiya masking tape in widths of 1, 2, and 3 mm.

Edited March 29, 2021 by Bainford

[Dodge Driver]

Thanks for the tip!

[Rick L]

Ok, I received some metalized Mylar tape from Uline today and the results are mixed. Being only .0025 thick I thought it would be worth exploring. I did a quick application to my guinea pig car and found that it had a better, more uniform, chrome appearance than BMF. The adhesive is more aggressive than BMF but not as aggressive as painters tape. Being Mylar though it tends to come up on tight corners like the chrome strip but will hold its shape on soft curves like the fender. Mylar is also resistant to the solvents we use in model building.
The tape comes in 1/2” ,1”, and 2” X 72 yard rolls. The 1” cost me $15 and I think it’s a keeper.

 I’m looking forward to the Hasagawa film review.

Edited April 2, 2021 by Rick L

[Ben Brown]

I still haven’t had time to do more than peel a corner up to see what it’s made of. Turns out, I’ve already used this stuff before. Aoshima included a small square of it in their NB Miata kit for the mirrors and headlight buckets. It appears to be thin Mylar, adheres well, and is fairly flexible. I was able to get it to conform to the Miata’s headlight buckets without much trouble, but like Rick’s tape, it didn’t go over tight shape changes, like over the light bulb bumps, very well. It isn’t a complete replacement for BMF, but for my own uses (mirrors, race car stripes), I think it will work just fine. Think of it as another tool in your toolbox.

Ben