As promised - another update. Always happy when I have a productive day!
Final colour has been added and a gloss clear coat laid down. Sadly, I've not taken any photos during the painting process – I got all carried away as the colour went on and neglected to pick up the camera. Probably no big deal here - we've all seen paint as it's applied or masking tape covering half the aircraft...
As you can see in these shots, I have managed to get a decent coverage with the yellow (always a challenge with such a translucent colour) but without destroying the pre-shade in the wing rib valleys. That detail is probably too hard to see in these shots, but I can assure you the difference in shade is quite visible.
I was unsure how the Olive colour would look once applied. It could be a little dark perhaps, but I am pleased with both the coverage and tone achieved.
I think I have finally cracked how to get a decent gloss finish with the Vallejo Polyurethane I've been using. It needs to have a thinner to paint ratio of at least 2.5:1 with a couple of drops of retarder to stop the clear from drying in the air before it hits the model. I found that it also helps when spraying to move a little bit slower and allow the surface to look a little "shiny/wet" before moving on to the next section. It's a fine balance but I hope you can see from the photos that there is actually a decent sheen without the "graininess" that I have been getting on previous efforts.
My next coat of gloss clear will be applied using a 3:1 ratio to see how that goes, but that won't happen until after applying the beautiful decals from Model Alliance. The more I look at them, the more I like them.
That's about as far as I got this evening. Hoping to get yet more done tomorrow, although we have a weather forecast of 40 deg Celsius and working out in the garage could be a bit challenging in those conditions. We'll see how it goes.
Thanks again for the feedback. Looking forward to finishing this one now, although with rigging and various other fiddly small bits still to go I might not be done as soon as I hope.