Thanks guys! Didn't get a chance to upload my recent progress due to work and after-work commitments. I have been able to get the camo scheme finished and the decals applied this week so I am approaching the finish line on the Nachtjager.
Like my previous Toryu build, I used a watercolor pencil to gently mark the mottling scheme on the wings.
I then used my airbrush to paint the mottles within the pencil marks. I did the wing and tail surfaces this way but the fuselage was freehanded.
The rudder was masked off using flexible Tamiya White masking tape and then painted black.
I sat on this for a couple of days, not quite satisfied. The pencil method of mottling is good for a tight, harder-edged mottling but the Luftwaffe mottling (with exceptions of course) tends to be softer-edged. I tried to soften the mottles but I was making them bigger and losing the RLM76 between.
So I made the decision to re-do the mottling. The fuselage camo was free-handed and the mottling there was a little softer so I decided to leave that and do just the wings and the horizontal tail surfaces. The preshading was applied straight over the 76/75. I also decided to leave the hard-edged mottling on the engine cowlings. Some of the pictures I've seen seem to indicate a different painting style of the Jumo "power egg" so I thought a contrast between the upper wings and engine cowling would be interesting.
Another base of RLM76 was applied over the pre-shading.
And then I free-handed the mottling. Smaller and softer with more space between each mottle.
Satisfied with that, I gave the model a coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss in preparation of decaling/panel wash. Decals on this bird are minimal. The kit decals as well as the MSAP sheet have not included stencils outside of the yellow triangular fuel fill indicators, which I used. The MSAP decals were ok... not great. They were on the thick side but reacted favorably to MicroSol. The decal backing also had a milky residue... some sort of adhesive? I did my best to remove it prior to application but any small amount that remained seemed to disappear.
Another clear coat to seal the decals and I'm ready for some weathering.