Sopwith Dolphin - yet more vacillation over markings

Still haven't got very far with the markings. All I seem to have been doing over the last few weeks is experimenting half-heartedly with one technique or other, finding flaws with it and getting discouraged.

But it's becoming clear that what I'm going to have to do in the end is cut masks and spray the markings directly onto the surface. There are problems with this technique, of course, the main ones being:

1. It's difficult to cut clean circles in masking tape: the circle cutting tool tends to cause tearing and it's difficult to cut a circle that meets up with itself properly.
2. Because of the poor planning evident at this stage, I'm going to be spraying white on a darker colour. This necessitates quite a thick coat. This means ridges.
3. It's a bit scary

I'm going to get round these problems as follows:

1. Cut lots of masks until I get enough useable ones.
2. Rub down paintwork after spraying. To avoid damaging the Gloss Cote, I'll have to use quite a fine abrasive: maybe good old 1200 wet and dry followed by toothpaste.
3. Grit my teeth

 The only remaining problem is that it will take ages to apply the masks, and I don't want to leave the masking tape on for too long, so I've got to wait for a free weekend. Until then, I'll have to do other stuff. As it happens, I've started re-reading David Copperfield (it's Christmas, you see: Dickens is mandatory), and at the moment it's not clear which will turn out longer: the road to acceptable markings, or the road to Dover. Time will tell.

More in due course.