Thanks Gamera & Bakster!
To be honest, masking and airbrushing never crossed my mind. My brain went directly to brushes.
I used a mix ratio of two drops Vallejo MC + 1 drop of Vallejo black wash. Using the wash was an attempt to get a 2-in-1 benefit. Create a darker shade of red so it wasn't quite so vibrant. And thin the paint just enough so that it would flow from the brush without brush marks, and not flood the gaps between the panels. As it was the paint flowed beautifully from the brush with minimal contact to the surface and stayed where it was placed on the panels.
I started the typical way of using the tip to carefully paint each panel but it was slow and challenging to fill in.
Then there was a light bulb moment.
Rather than using the tip of the brush what would happen if I laid it so the brush head was as near parallel to the panels as possible and used the side of the brush to apply the paint. My hope was the brush would only hit the tops of the panels with paint and avoid the spaces in between. And it did exactly that! Using small sweeping motions back and forth over the panels it covered only the tops. Doing it a couple of panels at a time, 2-3 quick passes with the side of the brush and they were filled in with a nice even coating of paint. It made short work of the whole thing.
The whole process was an inspiration of the moment and luckily the gamble paid off. 