Thanks for the replies guys.
I'm a little surprised with all this stuff about the decals though. What I was trying to say in my initial post was that from virtually every angle, the decal film is not visible. I just got unlucky with the photo. I did put the decal on top of a gloss coat and I did use a decal setting solution. It worked really well. After the fading coat of paint, it's even less visible and I still have to put the dull coat on, so that should make it even better. I'm not really too worried about the decals. Having said that, I think I am going to try dry transfers on my next King Tiger (with a Porsche turret this time), but this is more because I need custom markings that don't come with the kit.
Thanks again for the comments,

Nic

PS--Dave, the wire I used did have a rubber sleeve, but I cut it off. Actually, there were a number of thin copper wires inside it, so I've got a lot of wire to work with now.