Preparing and Painting the Body
Thus, the time then came when there were no other jobs that could be done before painting the bodyshell - no further time could be justified in research to put off actually putting colour onto the model and risk ruining all that hard work on the bodyshell!   The Shell colour scheme is relatively complicated, with the half-and-half red/yellow overall, with satin black on the top of the cockpit and rear deck, and with white areas/lines of varying thickness separating each of those colours.   Although I had by now acquired the re-released Tamiya 962C in the Shell scheme (and the decal sheet with it) the Tamiya scheme is to paint the red/yellow using their excellent masking sheet, with the white and black executed with decals.  The other after-market decal sheet I had provided the white lining, but called for painting the other colours.   With so much modified on the bodywork at the rear, the doors and at the air intake ramps, the masking sheets would not be accurate.   In addition, the thought of making a single decal conform to the whole black area did not fill me with enthusiasm, particularly as that area on my model was now in 2 pieces!  Moreover, I did not fancy the prospect of colour bleeding through white decals over red or yellow, or worse still over both if the demarcation between the two of the colours was not spot-on.   Consequently, I decided to have a go at painting all 4 colours rather than decaling the white and black. 
As with painting 1:1 cars, the key is patience and 90% preparation against 10% painting.   Aside from the preparation work and cleaning to achieve a good finish to paint on, it is essential to mask the moulded-in glass areas fully on this kit from both sides.   I also masked off the whole of the inside of the bodyshell and the inside of the rear deck completely.   The Tamiya masking sheet is excellent for the glass areas just carefully position them first, as they can be gently peeled and re-positioned a few times until it is just right.   Tamiya masking tape on the roll liberally applied to the inside works a treat.   Then make sure that the surfaces and edges are firmly rubbed down onto the model to avoid any paint bleeding under the masking tape.   These masked areas were to remain undisturbed until painting was complete.   The model was then sprayed with automotive grey primer (filler primer in some areas to cover minor imperfections) and rubbed down gently with wet & dry to provide a nearly smooth finish, topping off with a white primer.   TA smooth surface is particularly important when using cellulose-based paint as this type of paint hides imperfections even less effectively than modern acrylics!   Working on the simple principle of spraying the lightest colours first followed by the darker colours, the shell was sprayed white first, but without masking off the colour demarcations, concentrating on the areas which would remain white.   Next, masks were prepared for the white areas by scanning the Tamiya masking template and the 2 decal sheets into my PC and printing them onto ordinary paper.    Note that the demarcation of the colours on the rear deck extends further back than on the 962C.   These were then cut out as templates, placed on the model, and trimmed to fit with reference to the model and 1:1 photographs.
Once happy with the shape/size etc of the templates, actual masking tape masks were cut from the paper templates for the areas to remain white (including the thin white lining around the cockpit and left wing endplate).   These were then applied to the model and smoothed down firmly once positioned correctly.   A few final corrections were then made to the edges using a new scalpel blade, very gently applied.   The areas to be painted red or black were then masked off completely, with the edges of tape lapped onto the white area masks slightly.   Three coats of the yellow were applied, with about 10 minutes between coats, and then left to dry overnight.   The masking of the red and black areas was then removed from the outside of the bodyshell, but leaving the original masking on the white area.   The yellow and black areas were then masked off against the white area masks still in position, allowing the red areas to be painted, again with 3 colour coats and left
overnight to dry.   Finally, the red area was masked, the masking removed from the black area and then the final satin black colour was sprayed.   After the rest of the day and a night spent wondering what it would all look like, the masks of the red and yellow areas were removed, followed by the white area masking.   To a great sigh of relief, only a couple of small bleeds had occurred under those masks, which responded easily to cleaning up and touching in with a fine brush.   The real moment of truth was the removal of the masking from the inside of the rear deck and bodyshell.   Thankfully, all was well – it is so easy to miss a vent, which if not masked properly can lead to a lovely overspray pattern just where you don’t want it!   Finally, the masks over the glass areas were removed from the outside.   These had worked extremely well; however, the build up of paint, particularly at the edge of the windscreen mask, was such that a gentle line drawn around the edge with a scalpel blade would have prevented the need for a couple of touch-ins to the black around the windscreen edge!   A little gentle smoothing down of any raised paint edges with a nail buffer did a grand job.