Pmask also has the vinyl masks, but you better avoid those, trust me I know.
I wonder if ICM wouldn’t provide you with a new clear part?

To echo what @tcinla said, this will be impressive when finished. It already is.

Don’t you hate it when canopies do the crazing thing after too much handling. I don’t think there’s a way to fix it. How many hours have you spent just on the masking alone?

Thanks Tom, @tcinla, I hope my painting does it justice and disctracts from a few of my build errors. I plan trying out the AK Stencil for some color modulation. I think using it along with some panel line preshading should make for some interesting color variation.

1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

COVID Ready! All masked up and ready to go. (Only thing is these Masks actually work) I have finally finished masking this model. It has a lot of clear parts, and I am forever thankful for the Pmasks that I bought. It has made an overwhelming job only mildly challenging. For the big open areas like the wheel wells and cockpit opening, I used Polyimide tape "Kapton Tape" which is an electrical tape that uses a silicone adhesive. It offers some flexibility and stretch and seals nicely. Oh and for those of you curious the drink is a rather tasty Manhattan made with Bulleit Rye Whisky, Noilly Prat Sweet Vermouth and bitters in my Grandmother Amaythyst glass. After a long week of work I always enjoy my Manhattan and when my Orange trees come into season it is Friday night "Old Fashioned's".

I am planning on starting my painting this weekend, I figure it will take a week or so to paint the model. I am very excited to finally reach this point, it is a big milestone. I hope that the AK Stencils help me get that variation in the top coat that I am looking forward. This is one of the biggest canvases I have painted, and I am using new paints, but no guts no glory.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

You know, @luftwaffe-birdman, I'll bet there was a time in that airplane's career when someone put a "wave-mirror" overspray on it. Unfortunately they were out of film that day so nobody took a picture of it and it crashed soon after.

Yeah, that's your story and you're sticking to it. 🙂

And nobody will notice any crazing in the clear panel.

Well as usual I wasted too much time this weekend, but I did make some progress. I got the entire aircraft in primer, using Floquil Gray primer reduced with Mr Color Leveling Thinner 400. It worked great, and gave me a great canvas. Of course I realized a few overlooked items like the antenna. According to the directions only the port fuselage had the antenna and wire. Well the fuselage had a nice positive locating position molded into it for the antenna on both fuselages. I cut a piece of plastic to fit the spot, glued it in and sanded it down to take care of that.

Once in primer I started using AK Stencil, on the bottom I used a dilute mixture of RLM66 to and then started going over the panel lines with dilute black. On the top I am going to use various greens starting with RLM 82 and I will probably use RLM 81 and 83 also, followed by panel line shading in dilute black. I think this will offer me a great varied pre-shade for the topcoat and hopefully break up the monotony of vast areas of RLM 70 and 71. You can see that I am not hitting the colors hard, leaving them varied in darkness but none totally covering the primer underneath. This is is a new technique for me and am giving it a try. I do not necessarily believe that an Old Dog, can't learn some new tricks. Even if it doesn't work out perfect I think it will still turn out at least okay.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

The stencilling looks perfect, Walt @luftwaffe-birdman
This will bea huge improvement after applying the final coat.

Eric, @eb801, the stencils are made of a vinyl type material, that is flexible enough to wrap around curved surfaces. I am using Mr Color Lacquer paints and it seems to stand up to the solvents with no problem. The paint builds up pretty quick but does not tend to drip onto the surface of the model. To do the Zwilling topside, I cleaned it I think three times, by laying it out on a cloth and then taking a cloth damp with lacquer thinner and wiping it off. Then back to painting with no issues. I have since done a second layer of green and started shading the panel lines, and have to say I really am liking the look. We will see if it works as well as I hope. I will post pictures later prior to paint to show how it is all prepped and ready. Between priming, stencils and panel line preshading I have at lease three hours of painting time already.