Just, when I thought that sanding was a boring task. Masking again. This time for the red colour. I had to be rather precise to keep the constant distance from already painted blue colour.
Main body of red was sprayed with X-7 Red, and darkened in few places by adding few drops of X-3 Royal Blue. No need for highlights, as previously sprayed white coat showed through. Red doesn't cover very well, so preparing the undercoat is very important in achieving good, uniform finish.
Careful removal of the masks. I conveniently skipped all the overspray touch ups, as unfortunately I got the red colour getting under the mask in few spots. Reasonably easy fix - mask locally, and carefully airbrush locally to cover the overspray.
Coat of X-22 gloss varnish to prepare for the decals.
As feared. Decals turned out to be complete and utter rubbish. Decals dipped in water for few seconds merely touched, literally exploded like a sheet of glass. I managed to damage the tail flag and one of coat of arms before I gave up for the day and went for a walk to think of some sort of solution.
Tail flag was simply masked and sprayed. 0.4mm masking tape proved quite useful. I masked the shape and white areas first.
Sprayed the red cross, masked it and finally sprayed the blue areas.
This turned out rather well.
Coat of arms was painted freehand using wathmaker's loupe and 0000 brush. Turned out so-so.
To salvage the rest of the decals - I sprayed the sheet with rattle can clear gloss lacquer, and proceeded with application. The coat of varnish made the decals quite thick, so liberal application of Microscale Set/Sol decal softening fluids was essential.
I made a handy stand for the model out of the cardboard from the box to make it easier to apply the decals where I wanted them.
Once the decals dried everything was covered in yet another layer of X-22 clear varnish for protection and to build up smooth surface.
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