OK, folks, time for a reply and a thousand apologies for the long hiatus. College profs are sort of out of pocket during December, and (no rest for the weary) the semester starts up again on Monday.
Nevertheless, I have some progress. The fuselage is together...
...and you can see how the cockpit and pilot are looking, more or less...
I've installed the nose piece which corresponds the the A-20B version I have chosen, and you are able to see how my bombardier nest looks...
...and the man himself...
He's not in place quite yet, but I've dry-fitted him and it works (and thanks to Tom Bebout for the figurine here!).
You can see the rear gunnery nest, here...
...and the masked canopy items...
A couple of editorial notes, starting at the end: the canopy for the cockpit is the Squadron vacuform aftermarket item; the gunnery nest and nose piece are stock. I went with the aftermarket item for the cockpit because I wanted it closed and the kit only provides the pieces--they look fine open but don't look right closed. The masks are Eduard, and I have to say, Tom Bebout again saved me a world of grief by encouraging me to buy the masks. There's no way I could have done it this easy by cutting Tamiya masking tape. The cockpit is the Vector resin kit. Every figurine is borrowed from another kit (or modeler!).
If you look at the bombardier's station, just below the bomb site there was a bad gap. With how much I have polished the nose plastic (and my desire to have the interior as properly done as I can), I had to close this. I eye-balled it, cut some sheet styrene, and that silly thing just fit in there. I considered it a minor miracle. I am letting the cyanoacrylate I used to glue it in--and fill gaps along the sides--dry before I touch up the paint job and sludge it over a bit.
I'l also note that the nose piece goes on without any struggle, but the gap is simply horrendous and the putty war has begun. That has to look right but shouldn't be too bad, knock on wood. Other seams were smoothed over with brush-on Mr. Surfacer 500 or 1200, as the need might have been. I have found that stuff very useful.
