The work you’ve done on it so far is amazing… the engine is especially detailed. It’ll look great when you get it finished, of course it already is looking great.

Excellent progress and fantastic looks so far, my friend @coling!

Thanks, Jay. I hope to so some more painting this week. First the white base for the lighting bolts. After some masking, I will do a pre-shade mottle for under the main camo colors.

Thanks, Spiros.

Some more work done. Plenty of masking for the front anti-glare panel.

Tweaked the position of the lighting bolt and secured it fully for painting. I also attached the rear part of the canopy only and masked it carefully. The first bit of airbrushing was to paint that area of the canopy frame colour 50/50 Gunze JA Grey and OD #1. I can't attach/paint rest of the canopy until the upper surface colour is close to done - this is because of the way the anti-glare panel meets the windscreen. Anyway, I did a black-basing overall with a mix of Tamiya German Grey, Red Brown and Flat Black, including some areas in straight Flat Black. I then followed this with a marbling effect using Flat White. Finally sprayed a first layer of Gunze JA Grey lightened with Flat White on the under surfaces. I will have to do a second coat as the pre-shading really darkened it. Gunze paints are very transparent. At least the marbling came through nicely, which was the idea at this point. I also sprayed the prop tips for a full afternoon of airbrushing. I will probably paint the wheel wells and mask them before doing another layer of Gunze JA Grey underneath. It depends on whether I do them in natural metal or aotake. The last pic shows the marbling pre-shade on top. I will probably add to the complexity of this with finer squiggles. You can also see where I removed the masks for the lighting bolts and hinomarus. This marks them out to be filled in with flat white shade one. Preshading the boundaries with masks will make spraying and further masking easier and more accurate. So, that's it for progress this weekend. Will post some pics elsewhere of a Tamiya Spitfire IX I am also working on now.

Thanks, George. It is good to get a bit of hobby work done. I won't retiring for awhile - too much to pay for still! Rivetting definitely requires patience, but my Rosie the Riveter tool is really reliable. I use Dymo tape and a steel rule to press in the rivets. I also use a pencil and calipers to map things out first and avoid mistakes. Good music passes the time and calms the nerves in what is a long process.

Thanks, Spiros. Even the bit of time I can take is a great stress reliever.