Ready for decals.

After not being 100 percent happy with the results last night, I went back today and put some fresh eyes on it, realizing that the weathering was a bit too dark, and stood up more than I was happy with.  Ran a thin coat of base colors back over the top to blend it all back in, and it came out much better than I anticipated.  With finally having a good solid product with paint, I went ahead and ran a 12000 grit sanding cloth over the paint job to knock off some of the dust and grit, and had a nice surface to start clear coating on.  Masked off the engine exhausts on the plane itself in order to shoot some steel paint around the outer rings in order for them to mate up once I get the engines installed.  Also masked and painted off the APU, which can also be seen below. Also managed to glue the photo etch chaff/flare buckets in place.  I'll be ready to get decals started tomorrow as well as getting engine cans fully painted, and assembled.  With the gear being pretty much built up (they're white metal, which is a nice touch) I don't anticipate a whole lot of headaches on the downhill portion of this project.  Still have to get the weapons and targeting equipment dressed up, but all else is rolling along pretty smooth.  Also took the time to go ahead and paint the red trim around the gear doors.  This is one of the very few times that I myself will paint anything on the sprue.  Typically I'll cut everything off the tree before painting, since parts simply have to be cleaned up to have a good appearance to them.  To paint and then clip usually means that you're having to go back and touch up paint, which to me comes across like double work....which I'm not a fan of in any situation.  However, in this instance, the risk outweighs the alternative, and it truly is more time consuming to try to cut them out, then hold them, and paint them than it is to just touch them up after clean up.  Again, this is the exception for me, and not the rule.  Still helping my family with a move this weekend, so it may be later in the day tomorrow before I can get any further updates, but my objective is to have decals done and sealed in by Monday afternoon.