I have been very reluctant to spend expensive Aviattic Naval hex on the floats.

I was afraid that it wouldn't be possible to get the decals to fit down into the groves of the top of the floats.
And if I on top of that would end up darkening the floats with tamiya smoke...
So a far out idea emerged in my mind...
Would it be possible to mask the German Naval Hex pattern and paint it on the float surface.
I didn't really think it all through and in the beginning I thought I would need several masks...

It turned out to be much more simpel than that, I only needed to cut one mask to paint the pattern!
1. paint layer, a grey'ish light rosa base color.

2. paint layer, a brownish color for the dark hexagons.

3. paint layer, a blue grey color.

After a little retouching the result is quite convincing.

And the masks cut from vinyl is even reusable for another project!
Kent