Well time for an update to show that I have done some work on this, even though there is not much to show for it.
This build has officially done my head in. Literally every part has been painted at least twice.
As for the guards, they took me 4 attempts to get right.
1st - polished a fraction too much, and went through the clear and couldn't save it...
2nd - think I tried redoing too quickly, sprayed clear on and a couple of drops of clear spat out of my airbrush and discoloured the base coat...
3rd - got a fisheye in the clear, could've polished out but I tried the old 'put a drop of clear in the eye, everyone else does it trick', and it crazed my base coat in that spot...
4th - finally worked, I went back to all my basics of painting.
The problem now is that my confidence is so shot, that I'm having trouble finishing it, as I don't want to wreck it, it took me hours to get the courage just to mask and spray the running boards.
Anyway, you will see that it is slowly getting there, I want to finish it so I can start my next one and put this behind me.
Hope the pics are ok, thanks for looking.