Airfix Spitfire MkIa - Part VI

Airbrush is still something of a novelty for me and painting of the camouflage pattern for this little bird  was a lot more challenging than I expected. Once I've masked the demarcation lines, I proceeded with painting all upper surfaces with Humbrol 29 Dark Earth mixed with some white to lighten it up. This step was done without any hiccups, although I'm pretty sure that I added far too much white into the mix.

Masking the camouflage pattern turned out to be a rather nightmarish experience. There are several possible techniques for such task - masking tape, homemade stencils, rolls of sticky-tack or even ready to use stencils that can be purchased. I am a little surprised that no one has thought of making printable patterns in PDF format and selling them directly online. Initially I tried to sketch the stencils on a piece of paper, cutting them out and fixing them with tape and sticky-tack in appropriate place. This technique perhaps works for some people, but I became too frustrated over mistakes I made while drawing the patterns and over pieces of paper constantly falling off or needing readjustment. Next I tried using Tamiya's masking tape - i stuck it directly to the model, drew the pattern, cut it out and stuck the tape back in place. That technique worked quite well for smaller stencils, but the large ones constantly stuck to the scissors. So after a couple of rather frustrating failures, I marched over to the artist materials shop and got a roll of masking film for airbrush painting. Thanks to the fact that it's completely transparent and its glued side is much less tacky than that of masking tape, I was finally able to work with it in relative comfort. Below is the picture of the model ready to receive its green camouflage.