Do painters really have to do this with each individual figure? Must take hours if you can't just reuse the tape again...

For customs and stuff, like this dude painting his Mario set, yes. For production figures like the teeth on a Zagoran painted by Gargamel they have a metal mask made, which costs thousands and thousands of dollars. Search around on here, I think there's been a thread or two about making them.


Thanks for posting this article... the guy writing it clearly knows what he's doing, and the figures came out fantastic.

I wouldn't say thousands and thousands but a couple hundred a mask. Depends on complexity and how many you need.