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On with the job! So here we are with the model substantially built and primed ready for paint. The upper wing is just resting in place: You can see clearly here that the undercarriage, interplant struts and cabane struts are white metal. The struts have a very solid and robust key into the upper wing. First application was trainer yellow: I later saw that the yellow needed to come further forward on the port side, so that was amended. The struts were also sprayed then masked along with the rest of the yellow ready for the Dark Earth background: I could have "free-handed" the camouflage but decided to make masks. One of my reference books had some useful scale drawings which I scanned as guides: ....and these were used as shown below: The vertical line drawn on the Silhouette to the dimension of the leading to trailing edge enabled me to get the right scale for the drawing by reducing or enlarging it as necessary, this technique is used on all the masks I produce. This was all very easy for the wings and empennage: And before too long: I considered doing Silhouette-produced masks for the over-fuselage camouflage but to be honest it was more fuss than it was worth, so some ordinary masking tape with a slightly wavy edge soon did the job. And when all the masking tape came off: Inevitably there are one or two small areas to touch up, but for a model that was so heavily masked I'm pleased with how little I need to correct. The final fuselage painting task is the nose panels. I'm going to firstly investigate using Bare Metal foil, cutting the panels with the Silhouette from a scanned image, but the default will be natural metal paint finish.

A Start I'm building the AlleyCat (originally Montex) Hawker Fury, a resin and white metal kit in 1/32 scale: The full build is logged on the Large Scale Planes forum here so this will simply be the painting and masking stage. Choice of subject was difficult but in the end I decided on because it was colourful and very different to the normal silver finish seen on Furies of the interwar period. It presents quite a challenge when it comes to painting and masking, a combination of trainer yellow, Dark Earth and Dark Green camouflage and polished aluminium on the side nose panels. The transfers supplied with the kit cover this aeroplane, K8267 but of course I decided to design and cut my own masks for most of the markings: The transfers would be useful to scan, import into the Silhouette software and trace, similarly the colour scheme shown in the instructions gave me an idea of the camouflage pattern, though a little research caused some doubt in my mind about the scheme's accuracy: Is there really a rectangular background behind the "7", and is there a yellow background to the wing tips? It's always dangerous trying to interpret old black and white photos, especially this grainy, so I decided just to go with the scheme. Yellow wing tips here I think: Max

Thanks Kev for setting up the WiP section, you have been wise in using a broad brush approach regarding how much of the build people want to post with the ultimate aim of a greater understanding of how masks are produced and applied. 👏 Max

I've now set up the Works in Progress forum, and moved this thread into it as the very first entry! I'll let you guys read all about it in the Rules of the Road post. Kev

Thanks Kev, good to see the forum growing.

Howdy folks, Due to popular demand, I've created a new Works in Progress section in the forums: https://www.scalemodelpaintmasks.com/index.php?/forum/20-works-in-progress/ There you can post the progress of builds you're working on that you will be using paint masks on. You can post the entire build from start to finish, or just focus on those sequences that involve the masking and painting process. Either way, the point is to showcase your work, and help people see how it's done. Have fun! Kev

Welcome to the Scale Model Paint Masks Works in Progress forum! Here you can post the progress of builds you're working on that you will be using paint masks on. You can post the entire build from start to finish, or just focus on those sequences that involve the masking and painting process. Either way, the point is to showcase your work, and help people see how it's done. Have fun! Kev

And finished. I'll do some proper photos in due course. It just fits in the IKEA display cabinet: turn it port quarter to the front and the door causes the pitot to bend a little.

That's better. On to the finish line.