I'm pushing through to the next phase of the build, namely the weathering. I'll probably switch back to the Constellation before doing that however, because there is quite a bit more work to do on that build and I would like to move it further along.

After painting, I applied a few coats of Tamiya X-22 Clear for the decals. I have been starting to switch over to painting my markings, but as this is a mojo restoration build, it is entirely decals this time. I am using LifeLike decals for the markings. These are not too bad for the larger decals, but the small stenciling is hit or miss with some text represented by small dots and rectangles instead of text. There are text stencils as well and I am not sure why they are mixed resolution since the text is essentially the same size. I did use the Tamiya fuel filler decals instead because they had more detail and I liked the look of them better. Even though the LifeLike decals were printed by Cartograf, they were as stubborn as the Tamiya decals when it came to getting them to lay into the detail. Interestingly, the start and bars (also LifeLike) were printed by MicroScale and they went down beautifully.

Then it was onto adding the remaining parts. In the past I left these off until after weathering for fear of breaking them off, but I always had trouble touching up any glue marks that might occur from the installation. This time, I decided to add everything except the open canopy and rearview mirror. I'll be applying another gloss coat so I can add a panel line wash and protect the decals, then I'll move on to the actual weathering.

Looks really good, Carl @clipper

Thanks Spiros (@fiveten), John (@johnb), and George (@gblair). I'm pretty happy with this one so far.

George, What has helped me with masking was to get a Silhouette Portrait vinyl cutter and take the time to design up some masks for things like the national insignia. Lettering is hit or miss depending upon the font used. If the font is available, it's easy, if not, you have to trace around a scan of the decals and then clean that up. That can get tedious.

Painting with masks is different, but it sure does make a big difference in the appearance, especially now that I have figured out how to spray and not leave edges at the masking edges. Two downsides of vinyl cutter masking are its inability to do small lettering and limited applicability to personal markings (unless they are relatively simple) .

Well, after a few weeks, I finally got around to finishing my two builds (Constellation and the Tamiya P-51B Mustang). They both turned out okay, but I've been distracted by life events quite a bit lately and I don't think I put as much effort into them as I should have. However, here is the Mustang.

As is the case with your Constellation, the final result is superb, a real joy to the eye, my friend @clipper!
Well done!

Very nice looking Mustang, Carl @clipper. Same goes with your vintage Constellation and diorama. You got your mojo working for sure.