If I remember, the last time that I built a Flanker, I painted in that exact order. this time, however, I have chosen to go the opposite way. Here are some more pictures of what I have been working on up to this point. I first pre-shaded all the major panel lines with black, not too heavy but enough that I thought would work.
In this picture you can see the pre-shading along with my first attempt as masking for the splinter camo.
More of the pre-shading of the panel lines
Last picture of the pre-shading, at this point I looked at the masking and determined that my method wasn't going to work.
So off came all the masking tape and on went the lighter of the upper camo colors
After that, i enlarged the painting guide in the instructions, and then cut frisket film to mask off the light areas, this was perfect for providing that sharp line required.
When I started to remove the film, some of the lighter shade came up. I cannot decide between remasking and re applying the lighter color, brushing the color into the lifted areas, or using a shade of a metalizer paint and making it look worn and abused.
I am planning on using hypothetical markings for this build as the decals from Zvezda are less than desireable. With this thought in mind, I am leaning towards just making it look weathered and abused. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Oh and thanks for looking.