Edgy roundels

"Accepting the facts is the beginning of wisdom"

In case my memory serves me even half-decently, someone somewhere once said something like that at some point in the history. The fact that requires acceptance on this round of the Project Mumblings is this: had I decided to leave those white lines off my model, even though I knew they belonged there, I'd suffered plenty. So what else could I do but attack my stencils and masking tape...

Taking a deep breath and getting to work

This phase made me doubt myself quite a lot. I guess the main reason is that the previous attempt with slightly undersized roundels failed so miserably - luckily there's no evidence of it anywhere outside my brain. No guts, no glory, so I painted the edges of my stencils white. Six stars were easily ruined, but the waiting. Waiting was painful.

Intermediate result

 

After the paint had cured I was even more nervous than before I begun this step. Ultracarefully I peeled off my first target, the left horizontal stabilizier's masking tape star. Himmel! It actually looked like something!
Of course the red fill and the outer edges would need touching up but I wasn't nearly that concerned anymore.

A weight of tons fell off my poor heart. How in the name of the Empire can this hobby be so nervewracking sometimes? And right now I'm not talking about hunting sub-millimeter pieces from carpets, floors or wherever or fighting to get them where they belong. Those things are in a totally different league of issues :p

We're not done yet, oh no. There's still plenty to fix and touch up, but at long last we've reached that part of the project where one can actually believe to see the end somewhere. That is wonderful.