Thanks, John (@j-healy). I am very impressed at how well this kit fits together and the detail that is on the parts.

Excellent job so far, my friend @gblair! That missing tiny actuator part will probably be invisible once all is buttoned up. Excellent solution to use combined parts gor the nozzle.

Good progress! And as John points out, should the missing actuator be too visible(?) it is easily replaced by stretched sprue I guess.

More work on sub-assemblies and pre-painting. If there was one area that I thought might give me trouble, it was the intake. The intake itself is made up of three parts, and the entire assembly comprises 5 parts, plus the 2-part intake trunk that was previously built. I pre-painted the interior of the intake then glued the 3 pieces together and taped them to keep them in place. It will require some putty and sanding to get it ready, but not nearly as bad as I have seen in other models. I built up the exhaust using 2 kit parts and 2 3D printed parts I had made. I pre-painted the interior of the exhaust before gluing it together. That's it for today. Cheers.

7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Very nice progress, George @gblair
Impressive to see that this tail fin consists of five parts.

Tamiya actually produced two versions of F-16CJ - one with full equipment (more expensive, of course) and your version. The Hasegawa one has the same full load-out as Tamiya's "Full Equipment" version, and even has decals for the same planes, but it is a lot cheaper than Tammy's version. Having said that, Hasegawa's version is a mix of old mold and new parts for CJ. It requires cutting off the original wingtip rails, and slap on new ones for AIM-120. I have both kits, and I can say in terms of quality and detail sharpness Tamiya wins hands down.

Today was actually a day of "miracles" with the model. The first one had to do with the small bulges on the front of each side of the intake. They are very small, and they are molded in clear plastic. The miracle was getting them off the sprue, cleaned up, and glued in place without losing one, or both, of the pieces. The second miracle was that I finally assembled the cockpit and everything fit. Tamiya has you leave the tub empty until the very end of the construction, so today I added the instrument panel, the instrument shroud, and the ejection seat. I was a little worried when I noticed that Tamiya has you add the HUD to the top of the shroud at this step, while the Eduard PE constructs the HUD as part of the instrument panel. But never fear, it all fit together. I also discovered the plane I am building has a two-color gray camo rather than the 3-tone camo I thought it had. Painting just got a little easier. I am now gathering missiles and pods for cleanup, painting, and decals. It is slowly starting to look like an airplane. Yeah.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Very good progress, George @gblair
A miracle you were able to mount those tiny parts without losing even one of them
Interior looks really nice.