What you have in mind will work.

I do have a couple of suggestions that should provide a better finish.

1. I realize you are trying to do this as inexpensively as possible, however, I suggest at least an airbrush and a small compressor for it. Home Depot has 1 1/2 gallon compressors for about $100. If you do decide to go this route, you will get your best performance at 25 - 30 psi.

2. If you still want to brush the paint on, use foam brushes and add 1 1/2 caps of "Flotrol" per quart of latex paint. The Flotrol retards the drying time of the latex so as to allow the paint to "level out" any brush marks.

3. Use 3M brand BLUE masking tape. The one you want is the "60 Day Safe Release". It will have a paper appearance and on the side of the wrapper is an adhesive index. You want the "2 dot" adhesive. This adheres reasonably well, yet doesn't pull up fresh underlying paint.

4. Paint you bird with its "base color" first (primary color of the plane), then add your other colors (white latex will cover a dark latex in usually 2 coats ).

5. After you mask, go over the edges of the tape with a THIN coat of your base color to prevent bleed under.

6. Read this article by Roy Vallencourt on painting with latex (Vallencourt is a Top Gun winner ). http://www.modelairplanenews.com/how_to/latex1.asp

Hope this helps.