The redo is done. Here are two pics with the wings temporarily press fit into place. Next step will be a gloss coat and decals which I will do before final assembly of the struts that will get in the way of everything.
Thanks guys. You can see the variation in the squiggle densities owing to different batches of paints between sessions. I went by feel for thinner addition so some of the worms are shinier than others. This should all even out with the various gloss coats.
Thanks Terry. Even more effort expended as I found a few spots that warranted some tight touchup work with all 3 colours. Got the gloss coat on now and have set it aside to dry.
Thanks Geo and yes, I've always thought that the sh!t to pay ratio of painting aircraft like that must have been pretty poor but, hey, they look pretty cool.
Some more progress to report. I started applying decals since the ID letters on the wing underside need to miss the wing struts and I just kept going. I think that I will go so far as to weather and flat coat the whole model before adding the wings. It helps that the fit is so incredibly precise. Here are the wing undersides with decals on and a little bit of Tamiya panel accent which I'm still trying to get accustomed with.
Fuselage side:
On the top of the landing strut fairing, this aircraft had a canvass boot to prevent dust from getting inside. Tamiya just want you to paint the top white but I took it to the next level and made the boots out of tissue paper dabbed with Future.
After painting the boots, they looked like this:
Amazing what one can get done when it's pi$$ing rain outside.....