Spoiler alert: not my proudest moment. With Project 3 done in my Fw-190 W-I-P thread and waiting for paint to arrive for Project 2 I thought I would head over to the "To be continued" pile and pick something quick to finish. I picked up the title subject which was covered in dust and tried to figure out why it wasn't finished. This too was started in 2018. It was all painted and decalled so a closer look was needed. I found my old build thread on another site and then found where things went side-ways. I had converted this to an FM-1 which meant only two guns per wing. This meant removing the outer gun and panels which I did...on the top. I neglected the bottom (a) including the bump. I'm going to live with it because the lower camouflage was a custom mix which I can't find so repairs would be mis-coloured. The second problem was a few days ago I found a photo of the aircraft and it showed bomb racks. Almost ready to landfill this I went searching the webs and found some photos of FM-1 without bomb racks so my aircraft had them removed/installed after the photo; that's my story. Third, tail wheel was snapped off (2). It was a good break, I filed it smooth, drill out a couple of holes and inserted a length of stretched spue, very solid now. Fourthly, I needed small 4s for the nose and after going through the stash for the third time, I found some. So that's where we stands. I have started weathering, using Mr Hobby Mr Weathering Color "Grayish Brown on the flying area. For the rest of the panel lines and rivets I am using a home brew; an old large Tamiya bottle filled with Future and Citadel Agrax Earthshade. Proportions are unknown but its probably close to 9:1. Left wing in progress and the area between the arrow to do (@). This is a very subtle panel liner and virtually no clean up required, Im using a 10/0 brush so its slow going

Just Future and Citadel, heavy on the Future. That’s what I like about this mix, you slowly build it up. I’ve found Tamiya Panel Liner very heavy, another reason I swapped over to Mr Color. They have more shades as well

Good to see you re-started this build, George @blackadder57

Still on the fuselage but I thought I would post some brutal close-ups for George @gblair What I'm going for is very light weathering as Navy aircraft wouldn't be exposed to very much mud and dust and this is where the Future mix shines as it starts out light and you can, if you want, add more passes to get up to Tamiya density. Mr Color used on the flying surfaces more to accentuate them. I work in small sections, about an inch square and remove the excess immediately with odourless paint thinner. Because of the brutal close-ups, I can now see spots missed but we'll call that additional weathering

The weathering has now advanced below the start and on the tail section

George @gblair I use the thinner with Mr Color. With my mix, there is very little that comes out of the panel lines, probably due to the 10/0 brush. Any over-spill can be quickly wiped with a finger in the wind direction that may produce a nice bit of extra weathering or removed completely. With the rivets I have found that you can remove any over-spill with the brush. Once the brush has emptied of the mix, go back to the over-spill and gently touch it and it gets wicked into the brush. If you look closely at the wing, you can see where I've used the over-spill on the circular inspection plates; add a few small drops and lightly wipe them in the wind flow with the brush. My Future is a newer version. Not as good as the original but it still works

Very nice work on the weathering, George @blackadder57
Thanks for sharing your approach on how to achieve that.

Weathering looks superb, my friend @blackadder57! Nice and subtle!

Top weathering also looks excellent, nice and subtle as.on the undersides, my friend @blackadder57! Looking forward to the final coat and final bits!