Thanks for the tip Rob. I think the paintshop may find a new home
And with work out of the way for a day or three, another progress update.
The lack of exhausts on the missiles was bugging me so I decided to do something to improve their appearance. A couple of 1mm holes, one each side helps a little.
The picture shows a before and after shot. A little primer has also shown up the fact that I need to do a little more tidying up. Currently, all 4 Alkalis are drying in the paintshop after a coat of Tamiya Flat Aluminium. I've seen finished models with these in white but all my research suggests conclusively that these were painted aluminium overall. When the paint dries I'll add some engine exhausts fashioned from styrene rod, the spares stash having turned up nothing of use.
Also on the agenda has been a little light weathering. I didn't want to go mad here, just give the impression of an everyday aircraft in use but still well maintained. I accented the panel lines using a fine propelling pencil then, for the areas subjected to heavier wear and staining, some pastel chalk staining and a little chipping was added using a scalpel to gently scrape back to the black undercoat as seen on the flaps in the picture.
These would have been subject to heavy wear and damage caused by detritus thrown from the wheels on take off and landing.
This was all done early this morning before the model was taken out and given a coat of Klear to seal in the weathering and prepare for decalling.
HobbyBoss aren't very imaginative in the decal department I'm afraid.
Only 3 options and all NMF. In fact the only difference between all 3 versions is the number applied to the nose. And there are no stencils at all
and why there are so many red stars is a complete mystery. Definitely "could do better" HB!
This is another area where some research is a good thing as HB's instructions show no stars on the upper wings. Research failed to show up any with this arrangement. Indeed it would seem strange on an aircraft that would want to avoid being shot down by it's own side (???). Besides all that, adding the stars helps to brighten the model up
I was now getting to a point where much of the model needed time to dry, most notably the wingtip nav lights. This is another area where HB's amateur "left wing team" struck again. While the right wing is as near perfect as one could want, the left wing has, as I've mentioned, exhibited a number of problems with fit, alignment etc. Now, as something of a parting shot, I've discovered that there's no nav light housing
so the nav light is represented by a droplet of clear red paint. That'll need until tomorrow to dry.
So, while that happens, I've been picking up all the little jobs left to do. The undercarriage was a good way along so it seemed prudent to get it all assembled.
And there were bits of fuel tank to assemble, parts to come off sprues and be touched up and missile rails/mountings to be painted. In fact I have a bench full of bits pretty much ready to go together.
The final push appears to be in sight
. I think I'll leave them off until the end.
). After that I had a pop at the fuel tanks. One went on fine, the other was a real pig to fit straight...and they interfered with the flaps which then needed to be repositioned. On top of all that the small transparencies (1 underwing, 2 under the rear fuselage) were all too big for the holes. One was devoured by the Laminate Floor Goblin while I was trying to reduce their size 
This is now a patch of Clearfix which, I have to admit, does look pretty good.
