Thank you, Spiros, Tom, John and George. Thanks especially, George for the feedback on the step-by step I am providing. It takes a while to document all this, in addition to actually doing it. I aim to share whatever I can to make things easier for other modelers. That's more or less to return the favor or "pay it forward" from all the stuff I have learned from other modelers online over the years. Really glad to hear that it is appreciated.

Here is a brief update on the paintwork. I have almost finished the white area on the nose cowling pieces by the removal method. One bit of caution to others who build this kit is to remember the complex way that the underside panel fits before trying to pull it off. I am glad I reviewed the kit instructions to remind myself of the two posts that require you to pull downward on the panel. It would be easy to break something without special care.

As you can see in the photo, the forward chin intake does not come off, so it will have to be painted in situ (some complex masking to come there). I have to leave the chin intake for another day anyway while the work on the underside panel dries. I redid the wavy-edged camo on the tail with a paper and putty mask. That worked well as the pic sequence shows. While I had OD paint in the airbrush, I did some touch ups to the upper cowling by masking the metal and white bits with silly putty (reversing the masking from yesterday). Finally, I removed the masking on the rear fuselage to do the D-Day stripes. Those stripes will be a slow process, working around where the national markings will go, so I won't post that for a few days. here's how it looks overall, including the alignment of the white stripe behind the prop. The weekend is short , but I will be able to get in some modelling time again on Thursday. I'd like to get this model done in the next couple of weeks. Fingers crossed. That's it for now. No need to comment at this point, as these pics get a bit too frequent for the exhausting business of keeping up with GBs. Thanks for following this so far.

Each step reveal even further improvements, Colin @coling
Indeed true that your step by step progress descriptions are very helpful, no matter if you are an expert or novice builder or somewhere in between. I must admit that I really like to follow your progress and find out how you achieved it.

Thanks, Spiros, John and George. Hours more work to plan, mask and spray VERY carefully but to good effect. First up was to fix a misalignment of the fuselage insignia outlines, which were at slightly different levels. I masked with more frisket film with Tamiya tape only over the OD painted parts. I cut around one insignia decal from the Tamiya kit, still with backing paper to check the positioning (relative to panel lines on both sides). I also moved the notch in the camo for the squadron codes slightly forward - same masking and respray techniques.

Finally I created the frisket film masks to protect the metal and camo areas for spraying the D-Day stripes. I started with paper and held this up against the fuselage to trim it accurately. I then transferred the form to frisket film. That was one whole evening and one morning to create one for the port side and then an exact duplicate for the starboard side. Getting the low tack frisket masks to adhere to the complex shape of the fuselage meant using Tamiya tape where I could attach the tape to OD painted areas. I also used snakes of silly putty that ran through the black stripe area while I sprayed the white part. All this took hours to make sure the stripes and border for the insignia decal would be in exactly the right place and match on both sides. The rest of the model was once again mummy wrapped I don't have photos of all the stage, but you can see the outcome with the white sprayed now on sides and lower fuselage. So, I think I am over the hurdle of laying down the D-Day stripes. Painting the black stripes will be easier, because I can use Tamiya tape fairly freely on the white painted areas. It is only when used directly on metal coat that it sometimes lifts the finish (at least so far!). No more work on the stripes till tomorrow. I have to be sure the white is fully dried and cured before masking it. I can't tell how well it all worked until after the black stripes are done and the mummy wrap comes off, Fingers crossed. I will work on prepping and painting the resin wheels and kit landing gear in the meantime. Hope you can follow my description of all this careful work. Thanks for following the build.

This is some serious masking and painting work, Colin @coling
I can imagine that this took you quite some hours, the result is definitely great.

Thanks, Spiros @fiveten, John @johnb and George @gblair . The patchwork look of the putty and tape definitely looks painful and desperate, kind of like an accident victim barely held together in the hospital. Actually though the most time-consuming, potentially headache inducing part of the job is the precision cutting of the frisket and the care necessary not to cut or position something incorrectly so that the paint job is really hard to fix later. The putty, which looks the ugliest on the model, saves a lot of work and covers very well with little worry that it will mar anything. The only thing bad about it is the way it can stick to stuff around the model and get pulled off. The bottomless box I use as a support helps, in that I can keep the putty from contacting the surrounding of the desk and spray booth. More to come today as I finish the black stripes. After that, the moment of truth when the masks come off, putty and all with, hopefully, a decent result.

Thanks, Joe! Welcome to the GB. Here are the next stages. I masked off the white areas of the invasion stripes, leaving spaces for the black areas. I was getting a bit worried about how long all the masking was sitting on the finish underneath.

When I took it off, most everything was OK and the stripes were nicely defined. Unfortunately, a bit of OD and metal coat lifted on the removable panel behind the canopy and above the stripes. My previous remarks about no damage from frisket and putty "so far" were famous last words. Bummer, but no big deal. I simply removed that panel and sprayed it with Windex. A few seconds later the acrylic paint layers just melted off. I will repaint it separately. I was actually not perfectly happy with the surface on that part anyway, so stripping it and repainting it now will leave it better than before, hopefully.

Your painting results are, as always, supreme, my friend @coling! Spotless remedy on the lifted paint, as well - ahhhhh, those nasty peel-offs! Regarding the time masking tape remains on, you cannot really tell: of course, the sooner removed the better. Looking forward to your progress!