Andrew, I have been following your build for a while now and must say you have everything right. I have built two of them myself and never used the decal stripes. I found painting them on is a lot nicer looking. Once you get enough clear coat on them and wet sand the rest you can't notice. Engine looks bang on to me as well. The whole model is a real nice kit to build and I would build another one as well. Keep up the good work, will be watching.
Ken.