Thanks Richard.
Good and bad progress this evening.
Managed to get some paint on the fuselage. Pics don't show the shading up - sorry. Will need to get some decent pics when it's light tomorrow.
Started off by basecoating with Tamiya XF-22 RLM Gray. This enabled to be see if there were any blemishes I missed. Also painted the undercarriage assembly at the same time....

I then did some pre shading with Tamiya X-2 White....

Mr Hobby H70 RLM02 heavily thinned for the base colour....

The preshading does show though 'in the flesh'.
Prior to some post shading, I needed to be able to dry fit the wings and the front corner of the stardboard one needs to be cut away to clear the engine cowling....

Post shading, inc around the wing roots....

All was going well and was happy with how things were going. Applied a couple of thinned down coats of Tamiya X-20 Clear and went back about 30min later to find the paint had reacted somehow in a few patches, leaving a milky colour. Not much I could do except sand the paint back and start again. This time I've left the clear coat off and will try again tomorrow. Sneaking suspicion I may have been a little over exuberant with the AB

Gary