I've been doing some progress with my entry as well:
As those couple of Vallejo Model Air metallics I got somehow aren't waterproof when dry, I airbrushed the seat, prop and the machine gun charging handles with Citadell mithril silver.
It ain't alclad, but it turned out pretty good I think.
The only parts in the kit to display any significant mould seams were the float struts, which sported a surprisingly (for a kit of this kind) hefty seam on the sides, but as they're smooth, it was no big deal to sand them down. A few minutes of work with a couple of grades of sanding sticks
The seams already gone in the pic above, it shows instead the only single sink mark found on my sample, on the bottom of the rear float strut. The location made filling and sanding tricky, but I think I got it filled and sanded.
Exhaust pipes and control stick painted:
Following the film and not the instructions, the handle of the was painted brass. The shaft is Citadell 'chainmail'. As I didn't have any Citadell brass at hand for the handle, I had to resort to Vallejo's Model Color acrylic instead. Because of its less-than-ideal coverage and largish metallic flake size, I sort of semi-drybrushed it on, taking my time with three coats. I didn't look as good I'd have hoped, but a black wash I applied to tone down the metallic gleam of both the shaft and handle improved it significantly.
Next was painting the instrument panel. As drybrushing the dial details after painting the panel itself would most likely result in the need for touch-ups, I took a reverse approach and painted the dials first, and when dry, applied masking fluid to each gauge, then painted the panel with the interior color, a 2:1 mix of non-specular sea blue and intermediate blue.
When dry, I removed the masking fluid from the dials, applied gloss varnish for the glass and painted the two handles on each side of the panel:
While I was at it, I airbrushed the interior color to the fuselage halves as well. In the photo below I have already removed the masking from the gluing surfaces and glued in the throttle quadrant and machine gun ammo containers to the cockpit sidewalls. Now a word of warning, I did a few test mixes and decided this one matched the movie machine's interior close enough. No real-life references used here, sorry.
The color of the throttle quadrant is also suspect, silver following the instructions, with different color handles just to keep things interesting. I even watched the movie's flight scenes closely a couple of times, but couldn't see a glimpse of the throttle shown.
And to close this update, here's the rest of the stuff going inside the fuselage halves, painted and ready for assembly:
Even though the engine looked nice, I didn't paint it any further than the black primer and steel colored doohickey on the top, as it can't be seen in the model when finished (well, actually the top can be seen if you leave one the top nose panel off).
although the decal seatbelts looked OK, I'm not that big a fan, so I opted for PE straps found in my parts box, with only the letter C sliced from the decal harness and applied on the centre buckle. Vallejo's offwhite I painted the buckles was nearly a perfect match for the decal color. As a pure color would look a bit too clean (though not a bright white in the first place) even on a glossy and pristine plane as this, I applied a sepia wash on the belts to finish them off.
Next stop: assembling the interior and joining the fuselage halves.
