Thanks Wayne, used grey pastel for a black beaufighter and lost a lot adding a clear coat so that I wouldn't smudge it. Just started adding the mottled decals. Not perfect but not bad. Kinda,sorta looks sprayed on. I have to trim the clear very close to the color or it folds under/over itself. I think I'll cut the strips into smaller pieces. Once this one is done, I'm going to try perfect the color discrepancy between my laptop and my printer and do this with an Fw190D I've got half completed. Opinions on this process, good or bad will be most appreciated. I will learn to do this with an airbrush one day.
Ah! Now I understand how the mottle decals are used. Good stuff, and I wouldn't worry too much about an exact colour match. Remember that a mottle is sprayed on in a random sort of pattern, so paint density is probably not even overall, leading to perceived colour variations.
Sorry about the delay in between posts. Still not moving around very well and this couple of hour project is becoming a career. One side done, the other tomorrow. Will get my tripod out and try to get some close- ups of the mottle decals so that you guys can decide whether the effort is worth it or not. It might work better on bigger aircraft as trying to trim as much clear as possible from these small decals is quite time consuming. The Tamiya decals went down great but I'm not sure whether or not they detract from the model. Anyhoo, here is the finished left side.Might add some more later.
Here's as close a close-up I can get. The little white flakes were caused by me on two accounts. 1)Not enough clear coat after the printing stage. 2) Not giving the decals enough time to release after dipping in water and trying to force them off. The Testors system says dip in cold water and this takes quite a while for the decals to release. This might also be due to the clear coat. Still a work in progress and lots of room for improvement.
Wow...18 days for a model containing 17 pieces minus five days to get my CPU virus free. Anyhoo, had an issue with the mottled decals for the right side so this is my attempt at trying to make brushed on paint look sprayed on. The mottle decals were somewhat of a success and I'll keep trying to improve the process. This one is done and tonight I'll be finishing one I started 9 years ago. Thanks to all for your advice and very kind comments.