Thanks, Rick and Des! It's slow going, but progress is being made.
Still applying CDL decals and I'm following Richard's advice to take my time and allow each decal to fully set and cure before moving to the next. I've had no problems with this approach.
This was just after application.

I let the undersides sit over night, trimmed them with a new blade and sanding stick, then applied the national markings.

This is how the underside of the top wing looks.

And here's the top side. Still needs to be trimmed.

Next step is to attempt to build that insanely delicate tail assembly that Des did such a remarkable job on. Hope I can come close to what he did.
Cheers,
Bud