I can imagine your internal debate, but like mentioned by Spiros (@fiveten), you can assume these stripes were there, Jay @ssgt

This morning I painted the OD paint on the 105. After much consideration I decided to omit the green stripes. After I unmasked the canopy I saw that the super glue I used to secure the pilots in place had fogged the rear canopy . Fortunately I was able to remove the canopy with out breaking it. I used tooth paste to polish the inside of the clear part, and that seemed to remove the fogging . The canopies need touched up with a brush anyway , so no real harm done.

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Thanks , Spiros @fiveten . I was fortunate, maybe a dip in future floor polish will help it too, I’ve never used it but have seen it mentioned by modelers often.

Thank you , John @johnb , I’m glad I remembered reading about polishing clear parts with tooth paste. This is the first time I’ve had to do it.

This morning was spent masking and spraying paint. I’ve read that F-105s initially were bare metal and were ,at some point , painted silver. Later they received the SEA paint scheme.

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Thanks Spiros , @fiveten . I’m happy with the painting so far. It’ll need some touch up here & there , but nothing major .

Painting looks very nice indeed, Jay @ssgt
Thanks for sharing the historical painting background of the F105, new to me.

Looks great, Jay (@ssgt). I think the decisions you made with the painting and decals will provide some great results. I gave up building stuff for contests and worrying about absolute realism several years ago, and now I am a much happier modeler. I always worry about decals, especially old ones. They come at the end of a build where they can really mess up a lot of work. I have sometimes saved cracked decals by spraying a layer of clear gloss over the top of the sheet. It will usually hold the decals together, but they also end up with a continuous film that you will need to trim away from the decal, and they end up being a little thicker than the original. Using Future has saved several canopies for me. I have recently discovered a product from Deluxe Materials that is called Looks Like Glass. It works just like Future. I also really like using Humbrol spray cans, especially their metallic colors. They can be a real time-saver. Looking forward to the decals.