After finishing with the camouflage, I clear coat it with some artist’s matte varnish out of a can. You don’t have to use the most expensive one but don’t use the cheapest one either. A brilliantly painted camouflage can be ruined by a bad varnish. The cheaper ones tend to leave a grainy texture over the paint, making a mess out of the appearance of the aircraft. The expensive ones leave a nice and flat coat over the paint. I recommend Winsor & Newton Professional Varnish. After clear coating the camouflage, I use 3 coats of grey paint to paint the underside of the aircraft and I clear coat it too. Now I don’t have access to dedicated shades matched to the original aircraft colours so I custom mix all my colours and as a result, I have to take some liberty. It’s okay as long as I don’t mind a little bit of inaccuracy. Modelling is supposed to be fun, after all.
(A note from Geoff – as you can see here Aadyan has managed to apply his decals to a flat finish and get away without any ‘silvering’ of the decals (which is caused when air gets trapped between the decal carrier film and your paint surface). This silvering can usually be avoided by applying a gloss varnish coat over your painted surface and when completely dry applying the decals onto this and then when dry sealing them in with another coat of gloss varnish. Then, when that’s completely dry, adding a flat varnish over the surface or whatever finish you are looking for (satin, maybe etc). Just a thought that can help you get a great painted-on look to your markings)
After wrapping up the painting, I start applying the decals. To me, decal softener is an indispensable tool. It makes the decals adhere to the body of the aircraft, so the decals end up sinking into the panel lines. If you don’t have access to decal softener, you can use plain old white vinegar instead. Although, undiluted vinegar is far too strong, so a ratio of 1 part vinegar to 7 parts water is adequate. Don’t take my word for it as the ratio may vary with the sort of vinegar you decide to use. With all the decals applied, we can start weathering the aircraft.
