A brief update. Here is a graphic illustration of the color issue:
To paint the wing roundels I will use a shade of yellow somewhere in between the darker shade on the rudder and the lighter shade on the decals and the images Patrick provided. The first step is cutting the outside mask (full size of roundel) from two overlapped strips of blue painters tape. I use an X-acto circle cutter, which is essentially a compass with an exacto blade rather than pencil lead. I approach this task with some apprehension, as I've had trouble getting clean circles in the past.
I decided to use a stiffer cutting board to prevent the blade from biting into the backboard too much and being pulled off line, and to go very gently. In past efforts I have pushed too hard I think, which can pull/push the blade off the true circular path. So far, so good:
It worked! Voila! The mask applied to the top wing:
Moving the cutter very slowly and with only light pressure is the key. You can actually hear the tape being cut. When you make a second traverse of the circle you will hear nothing except for the few places that may not have been cut through on the first pass. Yay! I finally know how to do this with confidence!
Here is the top wing with the backing coat of white applied to the masked roundels. This is to help the yellow cover better. Experience from model railroading days dictates white primer as a base for yellow, as light gray tends to give a greenish tint to the yellow applied over top.
Since I took these pix, I have applied the yellow and cut the remaining masks. I will mask up and paint the red tonight. More pix later in the weekend. This stuff is kinda fun! I love it when things work.
Cheers,
Bob
