Aircraft Edition Another bunch of masking tape pieces had to be attached to the surface in order to mask off the yellow quick
identification stripes on the wing leading edge and, partially, on the landing gear covers.
All this tedious work was necessary for airbrushing a few transparent layers of Tamiya X-8 ‘Lemon Yellow’,
which took about 15 seconds...Before I started painting the upper inner sides of the flaps, I applied
tiny amounts of masking fluid over the metallic basecoat, using a piece
of sponge.
The propeller was finished in a similar manner.
Thanks to the aforementioned treatment, once the subsequently applied
Tamiya XF-7 ‘Red’ layer had dried, I could easily add some damage to
the paint layer.The most difficult step was to paint the insignia on the tail. The
Oramask foil masks that I ordered initially proved to be pretty useless.
The application of such thin elements on the uneven surface of rudder
was very difficult and the foil immediately started to peel off.To further reveal the metallic undercoat, I scratched the surface with a
toothpick.I therefore ordered another set of masks, which had been laser-cut in a
Tamiya masking tape sheet. The designer noticed that the colour profile
that I provided as the reference for the masks was incorrect, so he
drew the sword insignia on its own using stills from an archive movie
as the reference.This second set of masks was right on the money. I already found this out whilst painting the inscription under the cockpit entrance: ‘Asakaze’ (“Morning
Breeze”).