What's everyone's opinions on this topic? I have a B24 and some P51's to do at some point and was thinking how shiny should the metal finish be? I looked at some pics of a P51 from visit to Duxford and it's shiny but not so much that you could use it as a mirror. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

thanks
Mike

I think the metal was pretty shiny at first, but then after some use it became dimmer because of all soot and dust, but still looking metallic.

I don't think that it would be the mirror finish that you see on many museum pieces, but 8th AF aircraft in particular were subject to a really high level on maintainence. Remember that NMF was used to increase speed, dirt increases drag and reduces speed, not much, but to a fighter pilot, speed=life.