I painted the pieces that were going to covered in carbon fiber with Krylon Satin Black straight from the can. This paint goes on pretty well, dries quickly, and has great coverage. After that dried I applied more of the Studio 27 carbon fiber decals. Halfway through application I ran out of Micro Sol but read that Tamiya'x X20A thinner can substitute as a decal softening solution. I decided to give it a try, and it was perfect! The decals reacted much better to the X20A than they did to MicroSol. The X20A did leave some surface blemishes but a coat of clear should take care of that.
After the carbon fiber decals were applied I assembled the front wing, then applied the logo decals to the wing elements and end plates. You'll also notice the lower rear wing element has already been glued to the endplates. This was done before painting. Gluing 4 loose wing elements to 2 wing endplates while worrying about keeping everything square isn't a lot of fun, so having the bottom element glued in place before final assembly helps keep everything square, as well as allowing the other 3 elements slide in to place with some static friction.
Next step was to clear the carbon fiber pieces. I was going back and forth between using a glossy clear coat (Testors Wet Look Clear), and Testors Metalizer which has more of a duller flat finish. I ended up going for the glossy clear coat. The carbon fiber may be a little too glossy for some peoples tastes, but I'm happy with it. I may end up deciding to dull down the clear coat, but that is TBD.
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