Stripes of yellow paper 3mm

Three millimeters for recognition bands

This width belongs to what on aircraft are called identification bands: a band around the fuselage, a stripe across the rudder, a border around the wing root. In 1:48 scale it corresponds to roughly fourteen centimeters of real width, so it suits even the bands that run across a whole fuselage side in period photographs. Modelers reach for it for the spirals on propeller spinners too, where a constant width has to be kept even while turning around the cone.

When to remove a mask

The timing decides whether an edge will be sharp or ragged. The best moment comes when the paint has lost its sheen but is not yet fully hard: roughly after a few dozen minutes with solvent-based varnishes. A hard film breaks off at the edge of a mask and a piece of the finish goes with it; wet varnish, on the other hand, flows over the edge and the line spreads. If you are not sure, first try peeling a short section off in a less visible place.

Recommended sequence of work

Spray the lightest shade first and mask toward the darker one, so that any overspray is lost. Lay the bands out from a reference point on the model, not by eye: a row of rivets, a panel dividing line or the edge of a row of panels is enough and the line will agree on both fuselage sides. Any adhesive residue that does arise is taken off by cotton wool moistened with soapy water.

If a band goes right around the fuselage, always start on the underside. The join is lost there and any overlap can be covered, whereas on the upper surface a seam would give away even an otherwise perfectly managed line.