The Little World

I am not a mask person. They make me nervous – whether they are the Venetian Carnival sort or the plain ones worn by train robbers. I spent 30 years wearing them in surgery and I was generally up to no good there either…

So when I need to mask for spray painting, you can see me reaching for the kit call-out that has a one-colour airplane. Or at least for the one that only wants two colours and is happy with a hard line between ’em. This is easy with masking tape, but made more difficult if the kit has the old-fashioned raised rivets and panel lines. Unless your tape sticks pretty well, you can get creep under it when you spray the next paint colour.

I have learned to press down the tape with a cocktail stick, to add additional liquid mask where contours are too complex, and to spray a dryer first coat than you’d otherwise think of. Then do not flood the colour on with a lot of levelling thinner – it will just eat into the masked line.

The other thing about masking is not to imagine that it’ll be right on the night and that you can avoid overspray by dexterous hand work. If you don’t want overspray, mask off the part you want to protect – even at the cost of more time and tape.

The Sunderland has the RCAF grey top without slate variance and a hard margin. That’s two mask jobs and drying time between them. Even if you are a messy pot of sins, at least save patience as your one virtue and give that paint a chance to settle and cure.