I'm going to be doing full detail only because of the reference material very generously put together by Steffen_T. Otherwise I probably would've just done curbside because of how awful the engine cover fit is.
Using full Studio27 CF Decals and PE sets. 102B will be painted with Zero Paints Pure Brilliant White and the 102D will be using Tamiya TS-16 and Zero Paints 102D colour set. Decals are very old on both kits so 102B will be using "Vector Magic" decals and the 102D decals by Shunko.
For whatever reason S27 only markets a PE set for the 102B kit, even though every single piece is usable for the 102D kit as well.
At one point they were both progressing very smoothly until the 102D decided it would be one of those kits where everything that can go wrong will go wrong (the 102B would soon join it in this respect).
The 102D had to be stripped twice because I couldn't get the finish I wanted to with a Tamiya rattle can. After the second stripping I decided I would try my hand at doing modifications, of which I had no experience with at the time, just to further differentiate the 102D from the 102B.
Cutting the sidepod opening out:
Meanwhile the 102B continued smoothly to decals. The Vector Magic decals are quite good in that they continue to be workable for a very long period of time, allowing for perfect placement. I'd say fit is only okay, but can be manipulated to perfection.
Decals around the sidepod openings were definitely the hardest to position properly but I'm very happy with how they turned out.
As I mentioned earlier, the engine covers don't fit well at all. I think this is pretty universal with the 102 kits since both kits were purchased separately but fit poorly in the exact same way. To hold the engine cover down while applying decals that span both parts, I extended the tab that holds the engine cover in place, and drilled a hole through a moulded rivet, so it could be held in place with a wire. This would come back to bite me later.
Body decals completed
So here's how pinning the engine cover ended up messing me up. Microsol went into the crack where the engine cover and body overlap, melting the decal and primer on the underside. When I separated the engine cover and the body, it tore the decal.
Back to the 102D: This time I applied TS-16 by decanting it and spraying with an airbrush and it went on much better.
Masking and painting was super intimidating to me, so of course I had to do a model that requires 3-4 colours in complex shapes. I must say everything went very well though. The Zero Paints light green looks pretty accurate.
Unfortunately the same can't be said for the dark green.... it came out almost black.
Thankfully I recovered it by going back over it with 2 thin coats of the light green.
And finally I painted the black on the body.
I decided to use the provided Shunko decals for the dark-yellow/orange parts of the livery. These also came attached with the dark-green portion for the lower side of the engine cover. The dark green from the decals doesn't quite match the dark green from the paint but I'll live with this.
It was at this point where I'd have to apply 2K clear, and also the point at which the problems started going off the deep end. It's still actually an ongoing process, but I've been running into non-stop contamination issues, even with washing the body thoroughly before painting. Some of it stems from dried Micro-sol residue, some from unknown reasons.
To fix the larger ones, I brushed some Future onto the "ulcer" looking crater just to even it out slightly, and provide a bit of buffer between my sandpaper and the decal.
At the same time with the 102D, I wanted to apply a tack coat of 2K before applying sponsor decals. I made a mistake when I tried sanding out a dust particle, and accidentally went into the base-coat. So I masked off that surrounding area, and applied the Zero light green, which immediately crazed the small area. Sigh. Then when I removed the masking tape it lifted off the tack-coat of 2K that was on top of the dark-orange stripe decals. Double sigh. I don't have pictures of it, but it was a lot of work to fix. Every touch up caused another problem.
I've got pictures of the engines too but I'll post those later when I've done more work on them.
