The lower fuselage has now been sprayed in Humbrol enamel, Number 56 'Aluminium', this time direct onto the bare plastic, without any SNJ application. The paint performed poorly, another indication of the variable quality of the once world leader in model paints. It needed a lot of thinning just to get it to spray at all, making it tricky to achieve the tonal variation by building up the colour. Even then it struggled, and when it dried, it was absolute dead matt, not even a hint of a sheen. This wasn't a major problem, as I wanted the fuselage to contrast with the brighter shine of the wings, although a smoother finish would have been a great benefit.
Once this had fully dried, it was given a very light dusting of the SNJ powder, then gently buffed with cotton wool, finishing with a harder rub down with soft tissue, which created the slight lustre I was trying to achieve. The wings were polished with a slightly heavier application of the powder, varying the amount of buffing to give differing tones.
The masking has been removed, and those areas requiring slight re-touching are currently being addressed.
Next stage is some subtle panel line and staining work, with some tone variations around the engine cowlings and nacelles, followed by detail painting, and then the decals.
Thanks again for your interest, and I hope to show some more tomorrow.