Thanks John (@johnb). I love the DC-6. Such a good looking plane. I'm sure it looked great in white livery.

Looks good, Carl (@clipper). White always looks odd to me when it is the only color on a model, but I think I will look great once you apply your other colors and decals.

The Constellation needed the decals applied. I had originally considered masking these, but I felt the effort needed would probably be extensive since I would have had to make the masks (a lot of drawing work) and masking those stripes would have been a challenge.

The decals had a slight yellow tinge to them, so I stuck them out in the sun for several hours and that reduced it to a negligible amount. To be sure, I tested them on the stairs first.

The decals worked okay, although they took a long time to release from the paper. When I started on the main model, I had a mishap with the starboard side striping. It broke into several pieces with some fairly small. So I had to carefully put them on and align everything. I was able to later touch up any bad areas with some red paint. The port side decals went on fine.

All of these took several applications of MicroSol to get them to suck down enough.

I still need to paint the deicer boots, nose radome, and anti glare panel in front of the windshield. I wanted them to have a slightly satin look instead of glossy , so I overcoated the entire model first with Tamiya clear.The other thing I plan on doing is making the engines a bit more dull, and possibly slightly dirty since all the photos I've seen show them a definite different shade. I'll also be doing a small amount of weathering, primarily a panel line wash and exhaust stains.

Amazing progress, my friend @clipper! Closer to the finish line indeed!

Thanks John (@johnb), Spiros (@fiveten), and George (@gblair).

I believe what happened with the decals breaking was the curling that occurs when placed in warm water. I attempted to straighten them out on the first time when trying to see if they were ready to apply and I believe the decal paint was not soft enough yet to take this, causing microfractures. ON the second side, I left the decals alone longer, and had no issues with breaking.

But this is my first experience with really long decals (as used on airliners) so there was some learning curve to get over. Placing these correctly, which I doubt I did), was difficult. I need to find a better way to hold the model when it's on its side. The arrangement I used was too rickety. I'm thinking of making something from wood for the next kit.

Long decals are, in most cases, a nightmare, Carl @clipper
At least this is my experience. Like George @gblair, I try to paint those larger areas as much as possible.
Nevertheless, your current decal progress looks really good.

I definitely considered painting as well. It came down to the amount of time it would have taken to create masks for the lettering. I was not confident I could match the red in the decals so I felt it was either all of the decals needed to be painted or none. So the stripes would have been fairly easy to mask off. But with all the lettering and some of it quite small, it would have been a chore to recreate all those masks, even on the computer. I researched the font for TWA and found one of the two used, but trying to repo the text quickly turned into a frustrating experience. So I just decided to take my chances with the decals.

Slow but steady progress continues on the Constellation. There has been a lot of small detail work needed (and still more to do). I first concentrated on getting a variety of small bits painted including the spinning propellers. I had to respray the cockpit windshield area because the original masking had slipped and covered an area I wanted white. It had also allowed part of the blue windows to be painted.

Next I started working on the base of the diorama. Because of the decals problems I had, I wanted to show the better side of the aircraft . This required me to reverse my original plan of how I was going to mount the aircraft. I also decided to move it more towards the center of the base. Here is a shot of that experimentation.

I was torn on how to represent the cement parking ramp. I considered plaster of paris but was afraid I wouldn't be able to get it flat enough. So I decided to try something different. 320 grit sandpaper. After gluing it down, I wasn't so sure if this was the best idea.

While waiting for the sandpaper glue to dry I started on the landing gear.

After the sandpaper glue dried, I masked off the base and started painting the "cement". . I used a variety of grays to break up the monotony of the area. It helped to improve the appearance of the cement. It's not perfect and I want to try something different next time, but it doesn't look too bad. I also did a pin wash on the plane which perhaps makes the panel lines too prominent, but I rather like the look.

Next up was tackling the chain link fence. Using some YouTube videos for ideas, I soldered some brass craft wire together and then bent the top at approximately 45 degrees. This was actually a lot of work because each solder joint has to be filed to clean up the excess solder. I was sure the fence was going to fall apart, but the solder joints all held. To simulate barbed wire across the top, I twisted fine copper wire and then super glued it to the frame. And for the chain link portion, I used some Tulle (wedding veil fabric). I'll be painting this later and after I've added the other ground elements, I will install this fence. The fence will border the parking ramp as seen in the previous photo of the drawing of the layout.