I'm comfortable that the decals have adhered perfectly and clearly - I don't think they're going anywhere.

      I write the above in the morning, and I write this in the evening.  After giving the flat coat time to dry I applied very thin masking tape.  When they were all applied, I figured I'd better make certain the decals wouldn't come off after I painted, so I popped off the tape on the last window, and the decal came right off with it!

     I removed the masking from the rest of the windows extremely carefully without taking any more off (though it was close, many came loose), repaired the broken decal with decal solvent, and gave them all another (heavier) flat coat. 

     Gee, I guess that's not gonna work, 'eh?  I have to figure out a way to mask these things, as I intend to paint the inside black, then aluminum.  I think I'll end up taking small pieces of paper (possibly the decal backing) and taping them to the windows tightly.  Not exactly what I had in mind.

     In working with the thick fibre that will be run for the flashing running lights, I've confirmed that I don't have enough room to place them.  I've learned how to bend them with heat from a candle without breaking them or altering their conductive properties.  So, each fibre will be bent to a 75-80 degree angle with heat, then placed.

     I've drilled the holes for the fibre and the LEDs, which took a great deal of research and guesswork - this model wasn't scaled down perfectly, so the lines and windows on the hull don't match up with the port and starboard docks, so the indicator lights would be out of place.  If you watch some episodes of Voyager, the bottom running lights actually look like they're in front of the docks. 

     I estimate that each light should be directly above and beneath these docks, so I've had to place the lights at best estimation to scale.  It wasn't easy.

     I'm also annoyed that the diameter of the tiniest LEDs are twice the diameter of the .6 fibre I'm using for the flashing lights.  I think I can compensate by lowering the LEDs into the hull so they aren't so prominent, and filling the gaps around them with a tiny amount of putty, then paint.

     I have puttied the auxiliary deflector base, as well as a blemish (indentation) next to the deck 2 forward window (Mess Hall).