Ready for the second colour

I let the white paint dry for a few days before working on it again. After a clean up of the body in order to softly remove the final defects in the paint (3000 grit), it was time to place the masks which will protect the white areas of the body. There were a few difficulties on the way. The first one was to make sure to get perfect disks since the paint will show every little roundness mishap. Consequently I did not rely on a pair of cisors but on a steel washer, the diameter of which is very close to the diameter of the decal. Then, with a sharp modelling knife pressed against the washer, it is quite easy to cut the masking tape following the right shape. It is better to try to find a thin washer because the punching operation making the washer itself will be much more regular. You will not get an oval washer or one with poor edges. The one I have is a bit smaller than the decal, but that should not show much on the end product (if there is an end product ever...).
The second difficulty is in finding the right position on the nose cone. There are enough material reference points on the sides of the chassis to make those ones easy. The nose cone is a beautiful piece of bodywork, smooth and perfectly rounded. The main drawback is that it is so smooth that there is nothing to pick as a reference point. I tried to solve the problem by measuring and marking the nose cone. I drew two small penciled lines at each end (the radiator opening and the opposite end). A top view of the real car gave me the distance between the mask and the radiator opening. Job half done! So I unrolled enough masking tape to cover the length of the nose cone, spread it on a clean surface, drew a middle line length-wise, picked a reference near one end of the tape, and finally cut a disk at the right scaled distance from this reference. I removed the tape to place it on the nose cone, leaving only the disk behind. Positioning was made easy by aligning the middle line with the two marks I made on the part, and I took care to place my reference on the tape right at the tip of the radiator opening. I then just had to place the disk in its location and remove the rest of the tape from the nose cone. Job completed!
The final difficulty is in chosing the proper masking tape. Paint work on the Lotus 25 revealed adhesion problems and paint accumulation along the edges of the masks. The accumulation is obviously related to the thickness of the tape. I have a 50mm wide roll of Tamiya masking tape and I cannot understand how I could forget it while working on the Lotus 25. The tape is strong, very thin and sticky. It is quite worth the price.

The parts are now ready for their first yellow mist coats!