First,thanks for the kind words from you guys. What do the other 100 or so people that viewed it think? Even if you didn't like it?
JPolacchi, thanks for asking. All paint layers were masked using liquid mask. I put down the bottom most color I was using via airbrush,then brush paint on the liquid mask where I wanted that color to remain. So on the upper hull it was just two colors (the studio Model seems to have at least 3 colors,maybe 4) so it was pretty easy. The skirt had 3 colors for my model so I would liquid mask paint after the base coat then airbrush the second color then paint liquid mask again adding to the first mask then topcoat. It was interesting as you are sort of flying blind on that second mask as the first had been painted over and depending on color and how much you lay down, the mask becomes invisible. So i often didn't know if it had worked how I wanted till I removed the mask.
The biggest problem I encountered was pulling paint up. I started by pulling the masks up by sticking blue tape to the area. This would pull up the mask,but in some areas paint as well. All the way down to the primer. If you look closely at the "fender" on the hero side the shapes I created using liquid mask are closer to the studio than the picture shows as you can see a couple spots of dark grey where the mask pulled paint up that should have stayed. There were a couple times this really caused headaches but in the end I chalked it up to experience. Now I would use water and a q-tip to clean off the mask.
All other weathering is done with washes,pastels,and some light sanding which worked out well except for an area on the top/front green "Panel" where it looks like it has been sanded. Using these techniques if I had money,room, patience I think I could come much closer to the Studio Model paint job,but at this scale my eyes just couldn't see the liquid mask well enough to get any closer and I wanted to avoid brush strokes. Excuses,excuses.:rolleyes
