MOAJR-- how steady is your hand? Try painting them with a brush, using latex paint, WITHOUT masking. It's entirely possible, takes a little longer, BUT:

you don't have to worry about the paint bleeding under your masking tape (and it can happen even if you clearcoat the edge to seal it)

you don't have to worry about the raised edge along your mask line.

make a pattern for your stripes, or whatever pattern you choose, lay it on the covered plane, and very lightly pencil it onto the white cover (BTW, I wouldn't paint white what was already white). Then using a 1/4 inch flat camel hair brush, carefully start painting in the pattern outlines, just barely covering the pencil marks. Once that is done, use a larger brush where possible to fill in the rest of the pattern. You might need two coats in order to get a good streakless finish; then clearcoat with something fuelproof. I've been using LusterKote with great results. Here's two planes I've done this way. ALL the stripes and crosses on the DR-1 are freehand, no masking at all, and the checkerboard on the WACO, and the stripes (everything black) are also freehand. The DR-1 is covered in white Solartex, and the WACO is in yellow Solartex.

I did these planes this way because of the same things you said regarding bleeding under the mask and raised ridges. I have fairly severe carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands, but just took my time. I think the results speak for themselves.