Nice progress, DJ! It's fun to build this old kit, isn't it? This was one of the first kits I built, when I got back in to modeling, and I have a couple more in the stash. One to finish as an Atlantic bird, and one as a FAA Tarpon.
Polo_Sal
...I could not get the wings to glue correctly and the body seemed to be a little out of place. I had to glue the two pieces together 3 times in order for all the seam lines to stay together. As for painting, I don't have an air brush so I had to go with brushes. I have discovered that will take a while and doesn't have the same look all around.
It was my 4th attempt at building, so I just stoped working on it. I might come back to it and finish it. Maybe later as I improve my skills, I can make look at least half way as good as yours.
You should pick it up again, Sal! I build the old Monogram USN aircraft from time to time, and the wings can be tricky. I have the Wildcat on the bench, and I discovered that I didn't get the center section aligned correctly, it's off by about 2mm on the one side. Not visible so much, and not visible from above, but it caused a gap between the inner wing stub and the outer wing on the underside. Oh, well, I'm building it for fun, not for IPMS!
As far as painting goes, you don't need an airbrush, necessarily, but if you do want to get the same kind of effect, of thin layers of paint, have you tried using rattle-cans? I used spray paints for most colors, before I finally got an airbrush, and I found it to be good practice for the airbrush. The process is pretty similar, with the main difference being that with a rattle can, you can't control the pressure, as you can with an airbrush. But you develop a "hand" when applying the paint, learning to avoid building up too much paint too quickly, which can happen with an airbrush, too.
But don't worry, if you like painting by hand and get results that you enjoy. I also build kits from the sci-fi series Maschinen Krieger, and there are a lot of guys who build those kits who paint everything by hand. Their finishes are indistinguishable from finishes achieved with an airbrush.
Hope that helps encourage you both!
Brad