thanks Spiros @fiveten, hopefully my dreadfully long build is somewhat entertaining. Now on to tonight's progress. Using the scanned decals/instructions for this kit, I created some masks for the hinomaru. I decided to use a 1.10m red disc with a 75mm white ring based on interpolation from some photos by a friend. in 1/48 scale these measure 23mm and 1.5mm, respectively.
I also tried something different this time, adding some extra mask to key the insignia in the correct location. Now, aligning hinomaru isn't really that hard, but the keyed masks made it very simple to line up top/bottom and left/right markings. With the masks placed, I sprayed some off white for the ring and to aid in coverage on top of the dark green paint. Then I placed the ring mask and sprayed red (Mr Color C385). I had issues with paint coverage with the thinned paint, but after 5 thin coats I was satisfied with the result.
The Raiden I am building is one of the few that I have seen to have the white ring overpainted. In fact I think there were only two groups that did this, and it's one of the reasons I chose this scheme. Next I placed the central red disc mask and removed the white ring mask and applied D1 Deep Green Black (AK RC304) which was thinned 75% with MRT (to speed up drying time to reduce the chances of seepage...there were none).
Finally I removed all the masks and to my dismay there were portions where there was red and white showing, clearly the successive masks didn't entirely line up with each other. Some quick touchups and the markings were done. Up to this point the Raiden was somewhat drab, but with the red hinomaru against the dark green, the plane really pops. There are some parts where the mask pulled up the paint, but that was due to the hairspray between the white and D1 paint as I was intending to chip the field applied D1. I will chip it tomorrow, making sure to do it near the pulled up paint.
11 attached images. Click to enlarge.
