Using a few aftermarket parts to enhance the kit. Eduard cockpit zoom set and seatbelts. Aerocraft cowling to replace the poor fitting Airfix one and gunsight as Airfix omitted this.
Cockpit parts primed, painted and glossed. Conflicting information on the cockpit colours so went with cockpit green lightened with a little sky, to try and avoid a "black hole". The cockpit walls will be in NATO Black.
There are quite a few prominent ejector pin marks that need filling or scraping. One set is in such a tight space that they proved impossible to remove but thankfully they aren't easily seen once in place.
Nose join was difficult to clean up with the protrusions in place so found it easier to remove them, sand the join flush and then make replacements from plasticard.
Chrome finish applied to the exhaust area using K Colors Mirror finish. Excellent product. No thinning and gives a superb finish on top of a gloss black.
Primer applied with UMP black primer. When dry it is rubbed down very gently with 4000 micro mesh just to remove any roughness. This produces a smooth almost porcelain surface.
Upper surface colour applied using Vallejo 70836 London Grey (FS36118) followed by some post shading with Hataka A031 (also FS36118) and white. This provided some nice tonal variations. This was then followed up with a Vallejo sepia wash along the panel lines.
Upper colour masked so the lighter shade can be blended. This was achieved using a very thin coat misted on until the shading and various tones just show through.
Upper surface decals. The Mike Grant decal sheet wasn't very clear about the upper surface decals. Found better details on the Fündekals instruction sheet that ironically has the same scheme.
Lower surface decals. Almost forgot to apply the large letters.....Had applied all the stencils and thought I was done before noticing the missing decals. Doh!!!
Starboard side showing the exhaust application. This was done using watercolour pencils. Burnt umber and various shades of brown. These are applied dry and then blended using a damp brush. Further blending was achieved using a soft brush.