1:72 Aichi B7A1/2 Ryusei Grace undercarriage bay paint masks

Dead Design 1:72 Aichi B7A1/2 Ryusei - landing gear bay masks

A set of masks for the landing gear bays. It has nothing to do with the cockpit or the markings: it covers the inside of the bays so that the top color cannot get into them while the airframe is sprayed. On the real aircraft a bay usually has a different shade from the outer surface, so once it is oversprayed, all the work on the interior is gone.

Why bays are masked

The order of painting with landing gear bays is always the same and cannot be got round: first the inside of the bay is sprayed, it is left to dry, it is masked, and only then does the airframe come up. Without a mask it is dealt with using packed cotton wool or a piece of sponge, but those do not hold their shape and the paint gets past the edge. A die-cut mask sits on the outline of the bay, so the edge between the inner and the outer color is crisp and straight.

Working in the depth of the part

The bays are inaccessible and in 1:72 scale genuinely small. Insert the mask with bent-tip tweezers and press it down with a toothpick at the edges, because it is at the edges that a mask most often fails to seat. Spray so that the stream of paint goes perpendicular to the surface, not into the bay; an angled coat blows paint under the edge of the mask. Once the paint has dried, take the mask out as soon as possible, while it is holding only lightly.

The real subject

The Aichi B7A Ryusei was a single-engine carrier aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service with a characteristic inverted gull wing, designated Grace by the Allies. According to the name the set is intended for the B7A1 and B7A2 versions.

Who the set is for

• Modelers who want a crisp transition between the color of the bay and the color of the airframe
• Builders of Japanese carrier aircraft in 1:72 scale
• Those who have been caught out once by masking with cotton wool and sponge
• Modelers working with an airbrush