UPVC tape is malleable enough to follow complex surfaces and is ideal for masking fuselage bands. Nearby panel lines can be used as a guide to aid alignment.
Pre-cut sections of household masking tape are convenient for covering small areas quickly to protect them from overspray. Here, Hurricane propeller blades receive 154 Insignia Yellow on the tips.
DIY/household tape can be used in conjunction with more exotic products, such as commercial pre-cut insignia masks, which can be re-used several times.
UPVC tape comes in a variety of widths and is extremely flexible, and works well for masking curved edges such as the tight, trailingedge boundaries on a Hurricane’s wing-roots.
Soft-edged and complex camouflage patterns can be created with putty ‘sausages’. This material should be rolled on a clean, flat surface, the thinner it is, the tighter the sprayed edge.
With the masking removed, the results illustrate the advantages of using rolled putty to achieve the tight curves and meandering shapes typical of upper-surface camouflage patterns.
The lozenge-style camouflage pattern found on the tails of late-war Messerschmitt Bf 109s can be reproduced with shaped pieces of low-tack putty.
A lightly sprayed coat with an airbrush at low pressure will also lead to a subtle, soft-edged lozenge pattern, and the putty is easily removed, yielding a loose two-toned camouflage scheme.
A wide variety of commercially produced masking sets are available, including insignia masks, serials and camouflage sets and even circular masks for those awkward propeller spinners and bomb nosebands.
If a modeller uses an airbrush regularly, then sooner or later masking will be required and it’s this inevitability that often deters the change from brush-painting to spraying.
