That looks great!  Truth be told, I liked the look of the gloss just as well.  Here's my train of thought:  If you want to depict a plane like one you'd see in a museum or an air show, then gloss that puppy up!  If you want to depict it during its wartime service, then give it a flat finish.

And another thing, you've got an awesome wife there!!!  Don't ever let her go.  I think a good many of us here on this forum are blessed to have wives or girlfriends who are extremely supportive of our hobby.  There's nothing better than the support of our better halves.  My wife and kids have picked kits out for me at the hobby shop simply because they liked the picture on the box.  I remember this one time when they all stacked several kits in my arms all at once.  I was overwhelmed and told them I didn't know which one to get.  They said "Get them all!"  All this while we're on a tight budget, too!  Gotta love that kind of encouragement and support.

Eric

I think you did a fine job on the P-40. Truth be told it is nice to get positive comments and feedback from the great people here, but remember that the bird or any kit is built so that YOU like it. As long as the kit meets with your approval that is all that truly matters.

To echolmberg,

Yes, Mrs. Toshi is a true gem in our home.  I am blessed to be here with her.  I love your story in of which your whole family gets involved.  Thank you for sharing that special time in your life.

Toshi

That looks really good now.

Toshi one more thing to ask of Mrs. T.

I think you would agree that the antenna takes away from the otherwise quality build. Get her to give you a piece of her hair and replace the thread.

Saw your Mariner post.

To Brandon K.

Thank you for your support on this forum, I greatly appreciate it.  Ultimately I love making models of WWII aircraft, when forum members give me tips on how it should be approached, I take heart to it and execute the process.  As you said; "If the kit meets your approval, that's all that really matters".  Thank you for the read and reply!

Toshi

As Brandon stated above, it's your kit so do it up the way you like it.  My suggestion of a flat top coat was NOT an attempt at saying your plane looked bad and that it NEEDED a flat top coat.  I just wanted to be clear about that.  Brandon is right in that the most important part of this hobby is how YOU like to see your planes.  I like how your P-40 turned out both before and after the dullcote.

I also saw your post on the Mariner.  I will definitely be following it.  I never really thought too much of that plane but after seeing your pictures of the box contents, it made me think of how I've never built a sea plane before.  Now I've got the urge to go out and pick one of those Mariners up from my local Hobby Lobby!  I already have 25 kits in my stash so I'll just have to live vicariously through your build.  I can't wait to see it!

Eric

To echolmberg,

No need to explain yourself, everything said and done was a great benefit to us all, and as I stated; "I'm having fun".  Most importantly, I want to have forum members like you to take a second look to tell me what I just might be missing or added too much of so I can correct any error on my part.  It's a learning curve for me.  

I too hesitated on purchasing such a large kit made by Minicraft.  I've never ever built a Minicraft scale model in my life, so this is a first for me.  The only other seaplane I've ever constructed was a Monogram Kingfisher some 40 years ago.  This should be fun, and if you see any detail that I might of have missed, please feel free to teach me what and how to repair an error.  Thank you so much for your support as well as the read and reply.

Toshi

To GMorrison,

Are you serious about utilizing Mrs. Toshi's hair as an antenna cable?  If you are, I'll change this issue this evening.  Thank you for the valuable tip.

Toshi

Serious. Now if she has short hair that could be a problem.

Oh heck yeah!  You'll even hear of some people using their cat's whiskers for whip antennas on vehicles!  I've never used human hair for aircraft antennas but it's definitely not out of the ordinary.  Lord knows my wife sure leaves a lot of it on the bathroom floor.  Ha-ha-ha!

Eric

OMG!  LOL!

Well gentleman, I took your very serious recommendation and made it happen!  No not the cat whiskers, mrs. Toshi's very long black hair.  At first, she thought that I took too much of my medication, until I told her that this was a forum members recomendation.  Here are the results.

I'll do the same for the P-61 Black Widow.

She looks really good Toshi, and the hair looks perfect!

To Gamera.

Thank you!

To MBrindos,

Much more forgiving, and very simple to manipulate.  The CA glue adheres in seconds so it's a treat to work with.  If you don't like the way it looks?  It just needs to be lightly pulled and you can restart all over again.

Toshi