Chad, I like the metal effect, it looks very good. The cheker nose is very good too.
On the down side, I would work more on :
- when u downgraded it to 256 colors u lost in quality. I personaly don't like when it shows the color "squares" like at the wing root of of picture 1.
- get rid of the "inside wheel well" part, as it's the same texture when the wheels are retracted.
- The USAF insignas are too large on the fuselage, and I don't think they should display 2 on the top of the wings. You may miss the code letters too, I dono for this plane. I like when they are historically correct.
- I think it would look better with more accurate panel lines/ rivets.
Maybe you copy/paste a drawing, alas it usually brings more work to make it look good, than to do everything from scratch. The plane does look very nice on picture number 2. I think it's a good start, keep it on!!!
I'm working on a D30 too, just the metal skin. I'll be happy to share my work w/u if I can do something who looks not too bad.