Meanwhile, after considerable thought the work went on – and what a disaster!
Because the Gunze’s metallic had a tendency to rub off (and use of a polishing cloth did not make much improvement) and I was afraid that when I remove the masks some traces can remain I decided to spray the whole model with acrylic satin varnish. Tests made before that on the small parts were promising, but it turned out that the connection between the varnish and the metallic paint is not able to bear sticking and  peeling the masks several times, which is necessary when placing them in the right place. When I peeled off the masks spots of varnish pilled off with them…

What else could I do? Cleaning the paint, primer again and repainting.

Slightly angry with Gunze’s metallic  I used acrylic aluminum from Gunze – without any risk, but without this beautiful gloss either – however assuming that gentle polishing and coat of glossy varnish will make it look smoother.

IJA Green blotches still need some work.

With all this however I almost lost my enthusiasm for this kit.
To recover the enthusiasm I decided, that instead of masks will use homemade decals. I have already had sheets of clear decal from Techmod bought some time ago and using the masks from Montex as a pattern I designed and printed my own set of decals (the yellow border around the small Hinomaru will be cut in order to keep symmetry).

In the next entry I hope to be able to show how you how these “custom made decals” worked. The rest of the markings will be out of the box.

Hope you like it, stay tuned
Hubert