Dornier Do 17 Z-2 #2 / Tail & Basic Painting /

After wings have been successfully assembled and gaps filled with liquid green stuff and super glue (that is a case where I need some more practice, paint shows all imperfections!) I moved to tail section and remaining details. There was not many components  left, but still had to consider order of assembly prior to painting and making working propellers. I had no difficulties with tail assembly, everything matched as it should (despite my expectations),  few other details have been added and complete fuselage with wings  & tail was ready to be undecorated with pure white. 

Before undercoating whole model  I had to mask off the crew section, what turned out to be time consuming and pretty difficult task. Using hobby knife I cut out sections of masking tape matching exactly sizes of the cockpit & bottom section of canopy (which did not properly fit to the fuselage...). Don't know how "the inside" turned out yet, or if crew section was not accidentally sprayed (there were some small drafts between strips of masking tape after all), but will carry on with that as model is rather small and cockpit can be easily repainted with brush if necessary.  

I did not fix permanently neither landing gear nor the engines yet to ease painting. Engine covers were secured with blu tack to be taken off after painting to avoid overpainting propellers and make them turning - melting the axle behind engine panel to keep all in one place and prevent from falling out. It could be done with engines glued on but I could struggle with turning propellers during painting, what seemed too much trouble.

When all main components were in place and crew section masked off I could start painting (over white undercoat). I picked color scheme of  II./KG2 "Holzhammer" stationing at Merville in France from June 1940 (after all this is part of Battle of Britain project, second set of decals is for Stab II. /KG 3 "Blitz-Geschwader" from January 1941). I still use old range of Citadel paints (Knarloc Green as base), so the colors may not  match to actual shades used by German military from period of Second World War (what is not the issue here, first I need to get some working knowledge of airbrushing then will worry about historical accuracy). Even such simple airbrush as mine (bottom feed, external mix) proved to be extremely efficient and quick (not even quarter of an hour to spray top of the model). If only I could get paint mixed with right proportions right away... Matter of practice I suppose.

Next step is securing the color with matt varnish (just in case), masking off already painted areas and spraying the bottom of the model with light blue (Ice Blue with a single drop of previously used color for better visuals, simple trick but causes different colors to look more natural together). From then on camouflage scheme will be painted along with canopies, armament, crew and landing gear.