Here we are, all painted & decaled, and with a coat of semi-gloss on.
While the Model Alliance decals went on just fine -- came off sheet neatly, laid down with little fuss, followed contours just fine, etc, I did have a couple significant issues in that the squadron markings on the side of each aircraft are NOT as depicted in the profile artwork. You cannot see all of the problem because of camera angle but will later.
Both the front and back half of each are too short, with most of that being in the rear half. If I put the decal on such that the rear half touched the rudder post and I put the front half on such that it wrapped forward on the cowl there would be a huge gap where the roundel should go. So I adjusted as best I could by placing the back half forward about 3/32", fitting the roundel, then fitting the front half against the roundel -- all with about the right gap around. Even so the roundel is slightly further back on the fuselage than it should be. All this meant that I could not always make the nose decal get as far forward as it should, so I cut at the cowl line.
Disappointing, and I do not know why it is like that as the recommended kit is Toko and the EE kit is the Toko kit, so it all ought to work. Wonder if the 1/48 decals have same issue and I also wonder if I'll have same issue on other 72nd Silver Wings -- a bummer since the colorful markings are the reason to build these.
Admission, I do have extra decal sheets and could probably have whacked a 2nd set of markings up to patch these but I didn't know the problem existed until too late and didn't think about that as a solution at the time. I might go back and try that, althouhg the roundel placement still won't be right.
Oh well, struts are all made and painted. I just have to re-open the rigging and control cable holes and move on with erecting the struts, wings, and the rigging .... Now where are my 3 trained spiders ?