Thanks Nick & Paul, although I've had a bit of a set back to deal with.
I don't like
decals at the best of times and I guess I should have used a stencil, but after applying them yesterday they were sealed in this morning with a coat of VMS gloss varnish, and this happened!
I'd already tried sanding at this point to see if I could improve it. The star on the roof wasn't quite so bad but still starting to curdle slightly at the edges:
I spent a lot of time faffing & fiddling, sanding and touching up the edges and after an eventual coat of VMS matt varnish it's looking a whole lot better I think:
Not perfect but a damned sight better than it was, and an improvement over the one on
Tamiya's official website:
I'm still feeling as rough as a badgers behind and have slept for much of the day in between coats of this & that, but might get some more done this evening.