I posted this in the wrong place the first time. This is the start of my thread.
I have some aftermarket parts for this kit but will build OOB per rules & save those for another Airfix kit or adapt them to the Academy kit I have. Will be built closed up. Will probably paint the invasion stripes. Never have had much luck with the decal versions. I have four other builds going right now so my "In Progress" reports will probably be sporadic.
sorry for the duplicate posting.

This is where I'm at. The pictures are not too good. Please advise any color corrections needed before I start putting it together. This is one you need to follow the directions. The wing to fuselage is done differently than I am used to.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Little bit of an update. I believe the fuselage is ready to go together although it looks like things could stand to be dulled down some more. The wheel wells are just laying there. They will pull up when in the correct position. A word of warning for anyone wanting to use the pilot. He doesn't fit. I needed to hog out his inner legs & bend the compass forward for clearance' then the bottom of the stick was cut off to go through his legs. Needs to be attached to him not the floor as per the instructions.

Not sure close-ups do me any favors. The camera doesn't lie.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Hey Al , this is coming along great, I especialy like the fact that you added the harness correctly from pilot to airframe, thats a nice touch that I will pinch for my Horsa , I probably wouldn't have remembered that as I don't usually do crew figures,Thanks
N.

Time to get back on this. If you build this kit I would highly recommend following the instructions for assembly of the wings. The radiator gets glued to the lower wing section & must be trapped between the fuselage. I glued the radiator to the lower wing but left it unglued between the fuselage halves. I glued the leading edge of the lower wing to the fuselage & because the wheel wells have been glued to the wing it required a load tension at the rear but it ended up with a good fit. When dry fitting the upper wings the were lower than the wing fillets so needed shims at the leading edge & on top of the wheel wells but again ended up with a good fit. What little wing/fuselage seam was left was filled with Elmer's Plastic Wood & the excess was wiped off with water so no sanding was required.

The posted pictures are an attempt to show where filler was used & then primed with Alclad gray primer. The full gear doors are just there to protect the wheel wells while painting.

Believe I am going to post shade this one to try & get the colors more to a 1/72nd look.

5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

I'm gonna have to try that plastic wood filler. Even though the endless cycle of filling, sanding & rescribing lost detail is one of the few joys in my life, perhaps this will let me get to the painting stage faster where I really start messing things up..yippee.. 😉

Well after a lot of trials & tribulations with my first & probably last use of Vallejo paint I have some color on this thing. A lot of the areas where the paint lifted have already been touched up but I have shown one area that I left alone because it will be covered by the invasion stripes. Haven't done any touch up on the bottom side yet.
Going to let it sit for a day & then seal it before proceeding. If your look at it cross eyed you damage the paint.

5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

I have the Xtradecal sheet X72-179. I planning on doing Sqn. Ldr J. Collins. I wanted to get something closer to D-Day than the kit decals. It also has full stripes so it should hide more of the problem areas.