Painting Japanese Markings in a few easy steps

In this video I show how to make your own masks to paint Japanese aircraft markings. These techniques can be used for more complicated markings as well.
Tools: Any airbrush
Olfa Circle Cutter (fresh blade)
Hobby knife (fresh blade)
Steel Ruler
Paint: Tamiya XF-7 Red & XF-9 Hull Red
Supplies: Tamiya Tape
Tamiya masking sheet
Music is by Ketsa (www.ketsa.uk)

[@mirage3rd]

…and I didn’t know Tamiya was making sheets… thanks!!

[@paulcorrigan649]

Hi there. I'm an experienced modeller but have always done ships and land vehicles. After 30 odd years I'm making my first foray into aircraft. Do you have any suggestions for roundels with concentric circles and making sure they're centred?

[@ModelAirplaneMaker]

Yes- that can be done in a number of ways. You need to cut two circles with the center of the cutter staying in place. That way you have the solid circle, the outer ring and then the rest of the masking piece. Now when you go an start painting, start by placing the big masking piece and spray the outer color. Then carefully place the ring within the mask and spray the center color. Before you spray make sure to go over the outer edge of the ring with more masking tape or liquid mask. That should do it.

[@daniellabra4186]

Wonderful video. I truly want to try your ideas with the RAF disks... BTW, what brand is the model?

[@ModelAirplaneMaker]

Thank you! I am glad you liked it. I bet RAF disks would be relatively straightforward to cut. You can start small and work your way out! The model is the very old Hasegawa Ki-15 Nate in 48th scale. I think there have been many releases of this model and it certainly is not rare. It was actually made by another company and Hasegawa acquired the molds at some point.

[@Four-of-Six]

Why not spray the white, then put the "defense band" masks on it, cover the edges of the "defense band mask with some masking tape ( in case of overspraying red, for those whom cant handle an airbrush well ) , spray the red hinumaru. Pull the tape covering the edges and paint the rest of the wing and plane IJA grey. More or less in reverse of your way....... I find it a bit "overkill" those masking @ 4:52 mins. If you use red it is better to spray a base of yellow first. The red will cover better and it looks more vibrant...... It's also easier to spray the yellow for the IFF band first, then mask it, spray yellow for the hinumaru, spray the red for the hinumaru, mask the hinumaru, spray the white for the defense band, then mask it ( with strips of masking tape) no cutting needed and finally spray overall the IJA grey.....

[@ModelAirplaneMaker]

Spraying the white band and masking for the red before the rest of the airplane is another way to do it.