George (@gblair) ,
Your up lifting experience with the tape has become a speed bump. Looks like like the AK paints blended right in with the tail. Now for creating some imperfect Invasion stripes. Recreating a paint job that was made by a ground crew with little experience in making invasion stripes with mops and paint brushes . . . is a good match up for you.

George R Blair Jr (@gblair)

Hello again my friend. I am happy to see that you have been able to fix where the tape pulled off the paint. I believe that it was fixed perfectly and it looks good. I’m still a die hard enamel fan but I’m still occasionally running into trouble with paint lifting up too. It happens to all of us sooner or later.

The key is what you do to fix it up afterwards.

You did a great job with that.

I really like those mini split AC units. They installed several of them in our old fire station several years before I retired. They seem to work well and I have been thinking about getting one for our master bedroom.

You are definitely moving right along with it. I’ll be checking back in soon and I look forward to seeing your next installments.

I decided to measure, mask, and spray the stripes. I figure this will be a starting point for a little simulated poor application technique later. If they stripes didn't measure exactly right, or they looked a little crooked, I simply figured it was just a happy mistake. I sprayed the white first, then masked and painted the black stripes. I then went back over the panel lines in the black stripes with some lightened black. I was also a little worried about having the stripes show through the decals on the fuselage, so I created a mask 2mm smaller than the decal and applied it to the white area before painting the black. I removed the tape as carefully as I could, but still had a few areas where some of the paint pulled up. I many actually need to start using a primer, which I don't usually do. Paint is now fixed for the 2nd time. Clear gloss tomorrow, and decals on Wednesday. I plan to do some work creating poorly painted stripes after the decals. I have some photos that show the stripes inadvertently painted over small areas of the markings. Cheers

5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Hi Carl (@clipper): The chipping has been relatively minor and easy to fix. I made need to start using a primer, which I have never done in the past. The interesting thing is that all of the camo, top and bottom, uses the new AK Real Colors, but I haven't had any trouble at all with the light gray on the belly. I still really like the way this new formula of Real Colors goes through the airbrush.

Excellent job so far, my friend @gblair! Hopefully not too much paint lifting, all good now!

Looks like you easily solved the paint lifting. I hate when that happens. Those stripes are turning out real nice. You're on a roll again, George @gblair.

George (@gblair)

You've got a good base line for doing the black and white issues. Doing scale mistakes is a Catch-22 the casual viewer will point out the mistakes and then your model becomes a conversation piece. For people who read and follow your build we get it. Your black and white stripes are a good base line for making scale mistakes. The real challenge will be the fading of paint or showing the exhaust stains, the dirt and grime from fueling and folk walking on the wing roots. Giving the model that lived in look how ever you want to do it.

George (@gblair), for my primer, I use MrSurfacer 1500 thinned with MrLeveling Thinner so that it sprays on in a thin coat. As long as I watch what I am doing and don't over spray an area, I get nice thin coats. I typically will go over them with a 3000 grit sanding sponge to knock down any rough bits and clean up with water. Of course, beforehand I will clean the model with 99% alcohol.