Update - Tamiya 48 Scale Meteor Jan 2, 2015

Got it painted over Christmas.
I went with the paint scheme from early 1945 when the Meteor F.3 first deployed to the continent. A detachment of 4 aircraft were sent to MelsBroek Air Base in Belgium. These were painted White to avoid confusion with the Messerschmidt ME 262 jet.

I used light grey for the pre shading. I used Tamiya XF-2 White with a tiny touch of black to get "scale" overall white. I painted "between the lines" first to get uniform coverage on the panels, then did successive overall coats to blend in the grey preshading until it was just barely noticeable.

Then came of coat of Future (Pledge Floor Care Multi Surface Polish in Canada). After letting that dry for a day, I applied the decals, using Micro Sol and Micro Set.

Another day to dry, and another coat of future.

Then came the fun part. The reason I like engraved panel lines on aircraft is to do sludge washes so that I can get that defining black line in the panel lines.
If you haven't done it before, it is real simple. With a fine brush, take highly thinned black enamel (80:20/thinner:black) and touch the engraved lines, the Future should let it run in the lines a bit. Continue to do this til you are tired of it :). Wait at least 15-20 minutes (I have come back the next day and can still remove the excess). There will be some of it that goes outside the lines, but take a Q-tip with thinner (squeeze most of it out) and lightly rub the excess, wipe with a paper towel get the residue, you may have to put a tiny bit of thinner on the paper towel. I don't use tissues or toilet paper, too dusty and will stick on the finish. Using Future or a gloss finish first is a MUST. If you try this straight on flat paint it could ruin your finish. In the end it should really pop the detail!

All I have left to do is Dullcote it to reduce the shine a little, however due to the sludge with flat black, it may be dull enough because I did wipe the whole surface to remove any residue . It may have left more of a dulling action than usual.

Last shot is a 72 scale Airfix vs the Tamiya 48 Scale kits.

Of note, and I only realized this with the 72 scale build a few months ago... The RAF changed the upper wing roundels, from Blue/Red, to Blue/White/Red (like the under wing) in early 1945, not sure why, but they did, hence the different looking roundel on the upper wings.

Not perfect, because my best effort is always the next one :)