1:48 Aero C-3A Markings airbrush mask for Special Hobby

The Aero C-3 under the three-color star

After 1945 aircraft production in Czechoslovakia started up again from what was left half-built in the factory halls. The German twin-engine Siebel was thus given the new name Aero C-3 and served for long years with the military and with civilian operators as a trainer, liaison and transport machine. It was flown in the training of navigators, radio operators and paratroopers, the individual subversions differed in engines and cabin equipment, and it disappeared from the sky only in the sixties.

What the templates cover

The set defines the national insignia, the fuselage codes and supplementary lettering. With this subject in particular, spraying has a great advantage: the star is made up of several color fields, and spraying them over one another in the correct order looks more credible than a single thin decal film. The edge between the fields is then as sharp as it is on the real fabric.

The recommended order of steps

First lay down the light base, let it dry and only then add the darker fields. Between the layers it pays to run the base color lightly over the masked edge; it will flood any gap and the next shade will no longer run under the film. Paints and the model are not supplied with this item.

Where things can go wrong

The most common trouble comes when too wet a coat gets under the edge of the template. Hold the airbrush perpendicular to the surface, then, and lay the paint down in several light passes instead of one deep one. The second mistake tends to be impatience: film taken off paint that is still wet carries a piece of the edge away with it and the patch will show more in the end than the original imperfection.

The last piece of advice concerns storage. Leave unused sheets on their backing paper and store them flat in the dark, so that the adhesive does not age.