Thanks very much once again gentlemen.
Well, three hours work saw the code letters in place. I deliberated whether to buy a sheet of code letter decals and, apart from being 'tight', deciding that £6 was a lot to pay just to use six letters, I reckoned that the decals probably would not match the 'Sky' band and spinner. So, I decided to hand - paint them, and cut a template from thin card, in order to set-up the size and spacing for the letters.
PICS 1 and 2 show the template taped in place on the fuselage, and the letter shapes, 'DW - E', drawn on the model in pencil.
The template was then removed, and thin strips of masking tape positioned to provide a guide for the outside edges of each letter, which were then hand-painted using a 00 brush.
PIC 3 shows the finished result, still in need of some tidying and touch-up work.
Once the paint had dried, the model was cleaned, and the light panel lines checked, before a very small amount of exhaust and gun staining was added with pastels, and some dust and light wear around the wing roots. These areas will be further treated later, once the gloss coat has been applied, and the 'torn' canvas patches glued over the MG ports.
PIC 4 shows the first gloss coat applied, with Johnson's Klear (Future), which will be allowed to harden for a few hours before further coats are sprayed as required, ready for decalling.
Once that's done, it's down to the detailing work, and fitting the landing gear, antennas etc.
Thanks again for your interest and kind comments.
Terry.