Restoration project

I have had a lightning on top of my shelves for some time now, it's marked in 23 sqn colours with a white tail. It was the first model i made after a break of 16 years. There were a few wonky bits and the white spine and tail were almost see through.

I have a bit of a soft spot for all things lightning so i thought i would try and bring it up to date with my (hopefully) improved skills of the last few years. I was going to use the Mr muscle route to clean it up but i hadn't bothered to varnish it when it was made, so i just pulled the decals off with some sticky masking tape. Then i filled some big gaps all over the plane and then sanded it back. After a coat of grey Vallejo primer, i sprayed the bottom and under surface of the wings with some humbrol acrylic 56 aluminium and then masked it all up for a coat of 156 camouflage grey mixed with some 166 light aircraft grey to try and get the right colour for the photos i have. As i write this the painted model is in the airing cupboard drying.

I'm now going to paint the ejector seat and get new straps put on it. At the moment it's painted silver with black cushions ( where did i get my references from ).