Well, it's time to move on to painting. You work away and all of a sudden you realize there aren't many parts left on the sprues.

One good thing for those with "storage issues" is the wings can be put on and taken off, with a join that allows them to be slid into position that's perfectly strong. The horizontal stabilizers can be positioned similarly, but not tight, so I glued them.

Engines and cowlings can't be glued in position until after painting since I have to install the turbo exhausts first.

I wish I had assembled the ball turret mount before closing up the fuselage so I could have mounted the ammo bins, but you can't put them on and then slide it up into the hole in the belly - and this happens to be the one thing in the rear you can actually see, since I opened the radio compartment hatch.

For the nose cap gun assembly, I think attaching the assembly to the clear part rather than the fuselage is a good idea, since you can get it accurately attached, and when you put the assembly to the nose, it all looks like it should.

Overall, the model is complex but not complicated. There are a couple of "off" issues in shape, but only those at the Central Office of Those Who Will Never Be Satisfied need to really worry. Yes, I like accuracy, but I can live with some inaccuracy that doesn't hit me in the eye, if lots of other things are good - which is the case here.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

You are off to the paint shop already, my friend @tcinla!
Interesting that the wings are practically removable! Nice!
I also prefer to secure the guns at the transparencies, they look more natural.
"An 100% accurate model is yet to be constructed"... or not?
Looking forward to see this beauty painted!

Tom, your progress is very impressive and I am looking forward to the paint shop! I will be watching closely as I have a lot to learn on the airbrush/ painting side of our hobby. Looking forward to your next instalment!

This is the second HK Models Build I have seen where it is being painted with wings off. Is the fit that good that you can do that and get clean seamless assembly when done? Nice paint work, so far.

Nice work, Tom. I agree about not spending a lot of time on things that will never be seen. The one exception for me recently was the Airfix 1/72 Wellington. The detail is so nice, I had to paint it all up and install it.

So, here is the model painted.

Once I had the basic upper color on, I added a little XF-51 Khaki Drab, and thinned. I went back over the various panels. I wanted just enough difference in color to emphasize the panel lines in the original color. Then I went over it three times, each time adding more XF-51 to the XF-74, and thinning it as a wash. I blotched it over the airframe, concentrating the lighter colors on the upper-facing surfaces. After the third, I added in some Violet, thinned again and went over it, then more Violet and concentrated on the upper surfaces. This is to emphasize UV-sun fading, since these airplanes did their fading in the ETO primarily at altitude, with strong UV light. I then added in a bit of XF-78 "Wood Tan" and went over the fabric control surfaces, since they faded differently than the metal surfaces.

When all that was done, I cleaned the brush and painted the Medium Green blotches with XF-5 Flat Green, a good match for US Medium Green. I used a jpeg of the boxart of the Hasegawa limited release of "Knockout Dropper" to see the blotch patterns.

I unmasked the leading edges where the de-icer boots had been but had been removed - there aren't a lot of photos of the entire airplane, so it is unclear if the de-icer boots had been removed before or after Mission #50. I went with removal because it looks better. These areas had been painted with Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum before masking. Once the masks were removed, I went over the area with brush-painted Vallejo Aluminum.

Once the paint has had time to cure, I will apply an overall coat of clear gloss to protect the very thin paint, then proceed to decals.

The whole secret to sun-fading is to apply the additional applications of lighter color so that the original color still predominates. Once I have done "panel lightening" with the first additional coats, the thinner and lighter coats are applied by blotching, so they do not conform to any geometric shape in the surface detail, since that isn't the way airplanes fade.

Also, ETO high altitude UV fading will be different from that in the Med, North Africa, South Pacific, etc., When you're fading paint, you need to take into consideration where it was happening.

2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Beautiful painting, my friend @tcinla. I enjoyed reading all thoughts upon color fading and imlpementation onto the model.

Great color info and paint job.

Don’t know why anyone would want to “store” this unless they are waiting for their cave addition to be completed. It’s nice to know one can do that if needed. Certainly won’t fit in my display case or anywhere else.