Stay with it Simon. It's all part of the game.
If your using Super Glue to assemble main components you might consider switching to a liquid cement that welds the plastic together. Takes longer but SG doesn't have much shear strength & will snap open from finger pressure or dropping.

Oh well, it can be fixed Simon, as said above, calm down and don t rush while your repair is under way.:-)
The rigging looks good, it is just a slight set back, i am using mostly plastic cement and super glue only with pe parts.
The book of modelling disasters is more or less written by me, chapter for chapter 🙁

Rick , How do you know?
Good news is that I was able to dis-assemble the cowling and hopefully rectify the bloody problem.
The cylinder heads although nicely moulded are slightly to long so have trimmed them down a tad.
Just a case of rebuilding the cowling again.
The joy of plastic and glue.

I've been looking in on this thread as much for the entertainment value as for the modelling progress. Great stuff - problems and all!

Well you know, whats that saying.
If a first you do not succeed , then skydiving is not for you.
Well that`s what happened with the cowling.
This is about as close as I can get with out ordering a new set of parts.
But with a lick of paint and some weathering powders who knows?

Main decals on, but not without a fight.

2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Hi all. Just an apology. I've not done one of these group builds and posted my Defiant too early. Sorry about that. I jobs now. To wait for the actual date it's to be in. Will do in future.
Thanks,
Paul..:)