It's a drab day with lots of rain and drizzle outside so what better excuse to do some modelling. Trying to get the old girl up on her feet. For the tail wheel it calls for some black and white stripes on the hook. And of course I don't like to paint black and while stripes, and the kit decal is worthless. Too thick to wrap around anything and of course the white on the decal is a distant cousin to real white. Too the rescue are Fundekels' decal sheet of various sizes. They offer several colors as well.

So I picked out the correct size , cut it to length and wrapped them on the tail hook. So far so good. Next up was to improve the cockpit some more. Over the IP there is suppose to be some leather covered crash padding that's not represented in the kit. So I attached some round styrene rod to the hood then painted it brown to depict leather. Seems to look better to me. Next up I'll try to find some boxes in the spares stash to represent the gun and bomb release boxes that aren't represented either.

Love your progress, Tom.
The pad is very realistic, indeed!

Finally got some bench time in, finished all the decals and glued the ordnance shackles in place. Boy those were a PITA, probably because I waited untill the model was painted. Figured I'd break them in handling. The pins and locating holes are really small!

The decals are rather thick but settled down well. The ammo can numbers are also really small and I wondered if one could see them when in place. After another coat of Future/Pledge it was time to spray the dull coat. I first used Testors dull coat straight from a rattle can. Not pleased with the finish I switched to Model Car World dull coat lacquer sprayed from an air brush. A smoother and more even dull finish was obtained IMHO. Next up the ordnance which also has tiny pins and locator points. Trying to get them all aligned parallel and straight will be a challenge.

Well I'm finally going to call this one done. Painted the rockets and applied the decals, noted after mounting they all have little mold release pin marks on their tops. Oh well I didn't build her to be a show winner.

Aux tank and bomb went on as advertised, i.e. no issues. Next came the rockets, what a PITA, as the locating pins are minuscule. Highly recommend you attach the rockets to the stubs first then the stubs to the wings. It would be a lot easier and the alignment should be spot on. The antenna wire is nylon thread and I used some small wire insulation at the tail. The front canopy was attached with white glue and I used SpeedTape for the rear canopy. It's double sided tape and seems to work better than any glue I use. No smudges. The exhause stains is artist chalk brushed on with a stiff flat brush. I'll get around to posting her soon. All in all a decent kit but needs a little tender loving care to show her off.

Great result, Tom @tom-bebout
She looks really nice.
Like the way you created the exhaust stains, Might give that technique a try as well.