Painting and decaling
I chose not to go with the colour schemes provided by Airfix, much preferring a little interest to the scheme by painting it up to represent an aircraft with invasion stripes. A quick search for reference revealed one to my liking.
The area for the invasion stripes was masked off and the entire aircraft was painted with Xtra colour PR Blue. This gave a high gloss finish ready for decaling, which looked fabulous until closer inspection. The paint had gone on with a rough look, but undeterred I pressed on. I had purchased Humbrol 230 which is a good match for PR Blue but lost it at the moment of need!! In hind sight I think this would have gone on better. The black for the invasion stripes was applied using Vallejo model air black, and went on without issue. This completed the painting stage with the exception of the propeller which was finished off once the aircraft was completely dry.
A coat of Vallejo gloss varnish was applied prior to decaling, and Xtradecal X48-118 provided the markings I required. These went on faultlessly and looked very accurate, once dry a coat of Vallejo Matt varnish was sprayed on to dull the finish down to wartime standards. This had the miraculous effect of hiding the roughness of the Xtracolour paint and turning the surface into a smooth finish!
Weathering
Pro modeller wash was used over the entire aircraft to highlight some of the panel lines and Tamiya weathering master added to effect where required.
