Well it has been a while since I posted. I have been busy at work, and then took a trip to visit my parents for their 65th wedding anniversary. I have started the weathering process, first with a wash, and then started adding some staining over the wings from the engines. It looks okay on the gloss coat but really pops with the dull coat. I have started applying the dull coat and you can see the difference between the port wing and the starboard wing where the inboard engine and wing area has not been dull coated. I am also very happy with how the decals melted into the top coat and look painted. I hope to get more weathering done this weekend...I feel like I am in the home stretch.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Congratulations with your parents wedding, an impressive amount of years, Walt @luftwaffe-birdman
The weathering does look great, as do the decals, they indeed follow the surface perfectly.

Well I unmasked this last Friday and was devestated. Some how even though everything was masked up tight, I managed to fog my nose glazing. I can't explain it, the mind races and the heart sinks seeing such a thing after over a years worth of work. There is no access to the nose to clean it off, so I had to figure something out.

Well I knew the nose had to come off, if I was lucky I would get it off without damage, clean it, and install it. Just in case I ordered two on eBay to cover any inadvertant worsening of the situation.

Well, I was able to miraculously able to get the nose off without damage, clean it and reinstall it. I will be offering up at least one B-24D Nose and Canopy set on eBay soon! 🙂 The only casualty in the process was a pitot tube, which I had printed about 20 of so no worries. I just need to do a little paint touch up and I am back on track so it was a good day.

The day was made even better by the arrival of ICM's new B-26 Marauder! What a beautiful kit and I will do a review later this week. Just for fun I put a Monogram fuselage up against the ICM fuselage, a mm or so difference but you could almost glue them together.

Great correction work, Walt @luftwaffe-birdman
The nose glazing looks perfect now.

Walt, this build evolution has been a fascinating read.
I learned a lot about the "Blue Streak" that i didn't know before. The re-scribing i would have just assumed as a given, but the added riveting does a lot for the looks of the model. It draws the eye in, but it also looks like it disappears from 2 feet away, like it should.
It's also nice to see how the Vector resin aftermarket parts work out in practice. In theory they looked like they would work fine.
Sorry to hear about the clear parts but it looks like you managed to bounce back OK. I have this feeling that paint doesn't like to stick to vacform canopies, Acrylics and lacquers even more so, than enamels.

I didn't have a paint spill like you did, but my panel line wash managed to eat through the finish of my Corsair. Always heartbreaking to witness, but the repair job turned out great. I also enjoyed your investigation into Olive drab selection.
Like i said, a fascinating read!