Thank you for the positive comments. I've been suffering from a form of "modeler's block" for the past week. The Aires resin cockpit tub has such fine details that painting it has daunted me to the point of avoidance. I've been jumping around the instructions and finding other sub-assemblies to work on. Like the airbrake wells... I think I'll show them in the open position so I've added some simple wiring.
The Trumpeter kit has a photoetch insert for the airbrake inner surface... nice touch. I annealed the brass piece by folding it over a candle flame so that it would be easier to conform to the curvature of the airbrake.
Some excess funds in my Paypal account goaded me into making yet ANOTHER aftermarket purchase for the Flogger. This is the Eduard Brassin resin wheel well kit.
After the thick casting blocks are sawed off, the wheel wells drop into place without any kit modification whatsoever. A big difference from the Aires cockpit and exhaust. I pre-painted the nose and main wells black and then medium gray.
The wheel wells will be given some detail painting and then a wash... should look good when done!
The cockpit? Well, I forced myself to address the cockpit tub and sidewalls today. Spent lots of time under the magnifier and picking out the details. To be honest, I wasn't very happy with it and was considering blitzing it thinner and starting over but sanity prevailed and I got it to a point where I could accept it and move on.
The ejection seat is going to very tricky to paint due to the array of P.E. belts.