So I have some Tamiya masking tape for curves. On the nose of my mig-21 there is a metal ring that needs to stay metal. There is a nice recessed line between it and the rest of the fuselage. But I’m having a devil of a time getting the masking tape to go down on that and stay nice and neat along it. Anyone have any tricks to make that … easier? Or a tip about a different material for doing the masking?
In a case like yours I cut the Tamiya tape into a very narrow strip, say two or three millimeters wide, and apply this to the model edge you want. The narrower strip is easier to get conformed to the curved surface. Then using wider strips overlapping the edge of the narrow piece already on the model, I tape off the rest of the area to be protected and shoot some paint!
I second this method, it works well, and works for cutting tape for rescribing as well
https://www.scalemodellingnow.com/tbpainting-tamiya-curved-masking-tape-how-to-use-it
Hope that helps.
My trick:
Cover the nose cone completely with Tamiya tape.
Measure the diameter of the circle that needs to be made, and pushone of these round shapes over the cone
with a pencil, draw a line and use this to cut the tape.
No fiddling with 2-3 mm tape 
For your particualr case, when you have a “nice recessed line between it and the rest of the fuselage” then you can cover the compete nose with 1 centimeter tamiya tape and use that recession to guide your cutter. Usually works wonders for me
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Thanks everyone. I ended up just trying again first thing in the morning when my patience was at its max using 3mm tamiya tape for curves. After exercising some patience (and pulling up the ends and putting them back down even more slowly) it seemed to conform to a straight line. We’ll see how it turns out. I like all of these techniques. Using the recessed line to guide a cutter sounds promising - would need a brand new really sharp blade of course.
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Also, for complex curves you can use Mr. Masking SOL on completely hard/dry paint. I’d love to see a picture of your work. Thanks for posting.
I have found with this tape that it works better if you stretch it as you go. Cheers.
Phil has a thread going for the Eduard campaign.