Progressing nicely, my friend @gwskat!

Thanks, Guys!

Productive day today.
Created the masks and started with the insignias.

Applied entire mask for placement.

Removed the stars and center balls. Painted the white first:

Replaced the star mask and center ball...painted the Blue

Masked off the Blue, removed the red center mask and painted the Red balls.

I had one bloop but certainly cannot complain given the amount of masking and multiple sequences.

Tomorrow I'll fix the mistake and plan to paint the fuselage numbers.

Super job on the insignias, my friend @gwskat!

Thanks, Eric, Spiros, John.

For this project I needed to paint the upcoming fuselage numbers so I thought I'd keep going and do all the markings.
I will admit decals are so much easier than painting and with most aftermarket sets the quality is good but like canopy masking I don't mind the time and effort that goes in to painting.

In answer to Erics question. @eb801
Tips I have found to be useful. Anyone else have any, chime in.

-Take your time, think the process/steps through. This will keep things simpler from artwork creation through to how, when and what to mask and paint.
-Start with good art work. I use inkscape, a free, vector graphic based artwork software, to create the artwork. If you are not familiar, vector based will give you true, smooth lines and curves not blocky pixels.
-I have had good luck with frisket paper as the masking material.
-I find I get a better adhesion to a gloss surface. These AK RC paints were pretty smooth so I did not a clear gloss prior to masking.
-When painting/airbrushing, build up the colors with light and "dry" passes. This, most of the time, keeps the paint from seeping under the masks.

Happy 4th of July, Gary @gwskat
The 09's look great as well as the correction.

This is really looking nice, Gary @gwskat. You don't see many planes in the gray scheme. It really make the decals stand out.

I agree the new numbers look more like the pic. Really looking good Gary.