Thanks guys! Yes, Kirby... the bright markings need to be toned down a bit, which the weathering steps will hopefully address.
Moving along with the build! After the camo and markings have been applied, we've come to the weathering step and I wanted to do some paint chipping. I've been using this kit to test a paint chipping technique that I've never used. Up until this point, it has been used on very small items such as the prop blades and the drop tanks. I feel comfortable enough with using a sponge that I've applied chips over the entire model using a mixture of silver and grey paints.
After the sponge chipping was complete, I added to the chipping with colored pencils.
On the natural metal bottom, I applied some random post-shading with a thinned brown/black mixture. This mixture was also used to apply the exhaust staining but I've forgotten to take a dedicated photo of that, unfortunately.
The next weathering step was to add some salt fading. This helps to break up the uniform color shade and tone down the bright markings.
After the salt crystals were fully dry, I sprayed a HIGHLY thinned grey mix over the aircraft in random streaks. It's important to modulate the coverage and not be too uniform or else you'll get a result like I did with my 109G-10 build... an unnatural, freckled appearance.
But probably the most important step in the salt fading technique is cleaning off the salt completely. Any leftover salt will, even if initially invisible, will eventually crystallize and manifest itself as a white crust. I use a water spray bottle and a clean micro-fiber towel to get my salt off.