Good news on the transparency John (@johnb). Being able to print and use the decals is a simpler process than having to make and cut masks and then apply them. Yes, painting can show surface detail better and makes it easier to weather colors for the markings, but there is no denying that decals are usually easier to work with overall. This is looking great.

Decals look great, John (@johnb). I have had good luck using a laser printer to make decals, and the rest of the good news is that you don't need to clear coat the decals. The laser process creates an image that is resistent to most of the chemicals we use. Inkjet printers use ink that must be sealed with clear, which creates a continuous film over the decals. When I was doing laser decals, I still put a thin layer of clear gloss over them just to be sure.

@gblair, thanks a lot, George. Let's see how the decals behave, but sounds promising from your experience.
@fiveten, thank you, Spiros. They turned out better than what I was hoping for.

Looking excellent, my friend @johnb!

@fiveten, thank you, Spiros
@clipper, thanks a lot, Carl

@gblair, thank you, George. Those self printed decals did work better than expected. A simple technique to create customized themes.

This is turning out beautiful John (@johnb). I've used a similar technique on lights where I drill a small hole in the backside of an acrylic plug, then apply paint in the hole, glue the plug to the wing, sand and polish to shape. Result is a clear cover with a colored bulb inside.

I just caught up with this. Very nice work indeed, @johnb. Good work on the decals.

It's interesting to discover - through Sir Max Hastings - that Guy Gibson was the polar opposite to the "official" portrayal in Paul Brickhill's book and Richard Todd's portrayal in the movie The Dam Busters. Sir Max recently published "Operation Chastise", the book he's worked on forever - he was able to interview every living participant back in the 1970s, including Barnes Wallis and Sir Ralph Cochrane, but most particularly the crews. I had seen something of the real attitudes toward Gibson in the show "secrets of the dead" where one of the crewmen called Gibson "a right little English schoolboy," and he didn't mean it as a compliment. Johnny Johnson wrote in "Wing Leader" about meeting Gibson one night in an officers club and came right out and said he was not a nice guy. What I as a writer find fascinating is that a guy with the high personal negatives Gibson had could attract people like Hopgood and Mickey Martin and the rest of the "legends" - who were already legends and no one would have said a thing if they'd taken a pass on volunteering for 617. That's why I really wish Peter Jackson had made his movie, because the screenplay Stephen Fry wrote was as far from the "official story" and as close to the truth as anyone was ever going to get.

I really can't recommend Sir Max's book highly enough; the truth is always more interesting than the Official Mythology.