Here's what I accomplished from Thursday over the weekend.
This kit is not as difficult as it appears, said I - until I got to the landing gear. But here is what I have up to now.
Mostly, just follow the instructions. The parts all fit, and the fit is good enough that the over/under for the aileron, flap and elevator trailing edges, and the dorsal fins on the fuselages, fit smoothly without modification.
Do the cockpits, do the fuselages, do the wings, do the horizontal stabilizer, then bring it all together. I only used some CA glue on the centerline of the lower fuselages in the area of the radiator intakes, and I think that was due to "operator error."
My only deviation was using Eduard seatbelts rather than the kit supplied items, but that was just because I had them.
This fits like an Eduard kit, but you still need to think "I'm doing a high-end limited-run kit.
The one difficulty is to make sure when you assemble the wing subassembly that you get the fit of the center wing part to the outer wings just right in order to get the fuselages to fit without difficulty. I used slow Tamiya Extra Thin cement there, and test fitted the fuselages to the wing several times to be sure I was fitting it right. The good fit in the end was worth the hassles.
The canopy over the radar operators cockpit is closed, the pilot's canopy will be open. You need to scrape the base of the sliding canopy about a 45-degree angle up to the inside, so it will fit right on the fuselage in the open position.
Yes, those photoetch exhaust baffles are a right PITA. I ended up not using the little piece of plastic the instructions say to attach it to, it just didn't work.
11 attached images. Click to enlarge.
