The main painting is now complete.
For this build, I decided to: (1) skip the primer, (2) try a new preshading technique -- not sure if there's a name for it -- but the intent was to "marble" the panels to create shade variation beyond the panel lines, and (3) to try out Mr. Color lacquer paints.
Although it was a mistake to try all three on the same build (details below), it's a very interesting scheme. I've been able to find over 20 photos of the plane from the crash site, from the RAF inspection report and from the German side when it was based in France. I'll highlight a few things in a future update.
As for the main painting, the marbling process was pretty straightforward. No major issues.
I then proceeded to apply the camo colors with a slight soft edge on the wings and harder edges on the fuselage in very thin layers to gradually build up the coverage.
Although the Mr. Color paints are very nice, my layers were so thin that I ran into adhesion issues when lifting my masks. It seems that this paint is a little more delicate than Mission Models, AK or Tamiya, especially without primer. I had a number of repairs to make.
I also discovered that there were significant differences in relative shade across the various colors since I evidently sprayed each color to a different thickness. I found I needed to reapply (and sometimes remask) the various colors a number of times to get a consistent marbling look. Unfortunately, all the rework just about blew away the marbling and preshading effect.
While I had tested my intended paint combination (Mr. Color for RLM 65 and 71 and AK Real Colors for RLM 02), I realized after I painted the entire plane that AK Real Colors "scale effect" made the RLM 02 way too light, even though I had added some white to the Mr. Color 65 and 71. The 02 was much lighter than the 65.
In fact, AK recommends adding back some black to achieve 1/48 "scale color". So I decided to remask and repaint all of the RLM 02 areas with paint sufficiently darkened. Extra work but necessary.
Since the preshading and marbling effect was now gone, I went back and faded and shaded the various panels and colors for some basic weathering.
Some lessons learned. Time for gloss coat and decals.