Here's my progress to date since my last post. All of the time has been spent in the cockpit. Firstly, I mixed up a new batch of RLM 02 as per Wayne's instructions but substituting XF 19 Sky Grey for the White, which I thought might be a bit harsh. Picture 1. is a control shot of the new mix against a reference. This was shot in natural daylight on a sunny day and, on my monitor looks pretty accurate to what I see in reality.
Picture 2. are the pieces from the engine bay which have been repainted in the new mix. These have been shot with flash, as the skies here have been pretty overcast for the last couple of days, so the colours on the monitor may be a bit different. I just noticed that I haven't painted the closing strap on the ammo boxes, so that will need to be done.
Before I could detail paint the cockpit a lot of PE pieces needed to be added and boy, did that **!!ing swear box come in handy! Picture 3. is of the 'Ones That Got Away'. These were 3 tap-like handles for the inertia starter handle etc. I couldn't see these, let alone manipulate them with a tweezers or craft knife! Anyhow they all escaped into the carpet, where they are still lurking to this day! Having said that, I did manage to successfully attach all of the other PE pieces but not without lots of profanities.
Pictures 4 5. are the completed port and starboard walls. These were given a spray of RLM 02, then a slightly darker mix was sprayed around the raised detail, to give some shadow definition. Then I picked out the wires and levers in various colours. I started using acrylics, but found them very granular for fine detail work even when diluted. In the end I found well diluted Revell enamels worked better. On the port wall I had to add the three handles and pipes. the pipes are 15 amp fuse wire. The handles took a lot of attempts to get to where they are (these are the ones devoured by the carpet). I first tried plastic bits from other kits, but they looked way over scale, so got rid of those. Then I tried covered twin-core speaker wire - same problem. Finally, after much effing and blinding, staples, chopped and superglued to a T-shape, are what I ended up with.
The starboard wall is pretty much the Aires kit, with the PE bits added, including the oxygen bottle cover, and detail painted. Everything then got a thin wash of well diluted burnt umber and Lamp Black oil paints to bring out the detail. The blown-up pictures are a good idea, as I can see lots of areas that need touching-up, which I can't see in scale size. Having said that, when they're reduced to actual scale size, Pictures 6 7 they don't seem nearly as bad.
I'll finish this update in a second post.