Looks great, Ian (@ij001). These planes usually had a blotchy finish due to the number of places where their paint had been reapplied to prevent corrosion, so I would say your preshading is fine. Looking forward to the rest of the paint.

Painted over the weekend:
All acrylics, Tamiya Royal Blue, Gloss white and my own mix for the Light Gull Grey. I left the walkways in very dark grey primer.

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Very nice paintwork, Ian @ij001

Pity about the decals, my friend @ij001! I am sure you will come up with another interesting scheme.

Paint looks great, Ian (@ij001). Sorry about the decals. I have a bunch of really old decals that I have been dragging around for 40 years or more. On the really old ones I test with a decal that I won't be using. If it breaks up, I spray the whole thing with clear from a spray can. They won't break up after a new clear coat, but they tend to be a little thicker. Looking forward to the rest of the build. The A-7 was still around when I was in the Air Force, so it is one of my favorites.