How To Paint US Insignia on Scale Models with Custom Made Paint Masks 

Thanks for the input! It's comments like these that will help me produce better content. Thanks for watching!

Wait...you're tellin me there's decals for this?! Why do all the work of decals when you can just get a prepainted model? If I wanted easy, I'd buy a Snap tite and just put stickers on it! Easy isn't always the best route. If you saw the rest of the build you'd probably understand where I'm coming from. It's an extremely detailed F-105 that I spent an absurd amount of time accurately scribing, and adding rivets/fasteners. I chose to paint my markings because its as close to real as you're going to get. There's also the added advantage of being able to make color adjustments and more realistic weathering. Decals can silver, not conform, decal solutions leave tide marks in your paint, and primarily, because they are a thick (compared to properly painted insignia) film which sits top of the surface of your model, that you then have to float out the edges with a clear coat to make the edges disappear. Another advantage of painting your own markings, is you are not limited to what options the decal companies give you. With a little effort, you can recreate markings for models which do not exist. Creating your own paint masks with a craft cutting machine seems to be gaining in popularity these days by quite a bit as the word gets out and the prices for the machines come down. There's a full build album on my Facebook page

@@TheEmptySprue I totally understand where you are coming from as I also have one of those craft cutting machines myself. Wonderful tool. Keep up the great work.

Thanks John! 😎👍