I have made a lot of progress. I am keeping the weathering light and focussed, starting with a matt varnish coat.
There can be problems using lacquer varnish over lacquer paints. The lacquer reactivates the paint below and can ‘thin’ the base coat showing more primer than you want. One way to deal with this is a barrier of water based acrylic varnish but when I tried that it was not as successful as I hoped and, quite frankly, it just reminds me how much better it is to spray lacquers.
My solution is what I call the 5:5:wet method.
5 light mist coats of varnish, five minutes apart, followed by a single wet coat.
The mist coats are fairly dry when they hit and build up a barrier ready for a wet coat. It works well.
Weathering consisted of metal powders, focussed around the most commonly opened panels, the wing root, and some dry brushing strategically to show chipping and wear. Also some very light streaking, kerosene leaks and exhaust smoke stains.
I anticipated some for issues when attaching the undercarriage but, in fact, the fit was perfect.... beware to fit the correct wheels to each leg so the flattened wheel is positioned correctly.
Some pics.
