Great effort Scott, sorry to hear of your last minute hick ups with wheels but this is a learning process. Regarding your decals. Dont take this the wrong way but you are taking a big risk if you let the decal detach from the backing paper in the water. Decals have a nasty habit of folding in on themselves and realy need to be supported by the backing paper all the way to the model. You may have got away with doing that on this occasion but at some point you will pay the price and destroy a decal. I usually just place the decal in the water for about 20 seconds and then remove it and leave it to stand. You will find that it wont take long before you can move it around on the paper and then apply it to the model. Just follow the advice Roman has given and you wont go far wrong.
regarding the wheels Scott.. Just put them up in the wing and display the model on a stand in flight, no one will ever know.