Well I managed to get the gloss coat on. This is a lot trickier than you might think. It needs to be glossy enough to hide the decal backing film, yet the gloss needs to be thin enough not to fill up the panel lines and lose detail. Bear in mind that another gloss coat will be needed to protect and seal the decals and provide a surface for weathering washes. With my last kit absolutely no silvering was showing so that worked but in places I did overdo the gloss and some detail was lost. I am hopeful I might have got the balance right this time. Here is a shot of the model hanging to dry. It has to properly cure before the next stage, decaling tonight. You will note some details painted in with a hairy stick.
I have had some problems. Having left the masked up and painted canopies to dry for a couple of days I decided to remove the masking but some or all of the paint on the frames came away. Not sure what I have done wrong so put out some questions on modelling forums. I will now have to freehand paint the frames and that is not an easy task! Here is a pic of how the canopies look now:
Oh well back to the drawing board with these!