Stealth masks
As stealth technology masks aircraft from radar, we are left with the challenge of masking our stealthy project for paint, if you are not fond of masking, then you picked the wrong project here, plenty ahead of us.
The distinctive panels are a lighter shade of grey, nearer LAG than anything else (1st use of artistic license), so how best to approach this.
Starting around the cockpit combing and upper intakes, we simply mask carefully. Not too challenging yet.
The main upper fuselage is a myriad of panels, masking around each panel centre and frame would be laborious to say the least and certainly not an efficient method, so let’s tackle this from the opposite direction.
Masking around the larger whole area and applying the LAG en-bulk we can then work back across the individual panel centres and reapply the MSG. Well this is the theory??
Building up the serrated panel edges using short pieces of overlapping tape takes time and patience, you would think aligning to a straight edge is easy, but I found this is no simple task, just a faction of a mil will spoil the effect. Good lighting is crucial here, I retreated to the garden in fact as the lamps on my workbench cast too many conflicting shadows.
With the edges masked, a quick wipe with the cleaning swabs and on with the LAG.
Now we have to work back the panel centres, some are so close together that I staggered them in layers. No one said this would be easy, and it certainly is taking much time, patience and mountains of Tamiya tape, but the effect once finished should be worth it.
With so many panels, it took seven iterations of this method to catch them all.
Note there are a couple smaller Z-shaped panels on the starboard side behind the auxiliary intake that need a darker shade, in this case I went with an Extra Dark Sea Gray (ESDG). (2nd use of the artistic license)