I had a little more free time, and got the various sub-assemblies painted, weathered, and ready to start gluing. I applied the instrument panel decal. This was my first look at the decals and they seem very nice except there is a bunch of clear carrier film to deal with. I trimmed the instrument panel to get rid of the extra clear, but the rest of the decals may be a problem. The seat belts are very thin and surrounded by a significant amount of clear. I am trying to decide if I want to try to trim the clear or raid the spares for some seat belts. The kit provides decals just for the pilot's lap belts, no shoulder harnesses or belts for the passengers. I know that some planes didn't have shoulder harnesses, so I need to do some research to see if I can find out if they used shoulder harnesses or not. I will probably add some belts for the passengers.

Here are some pics:

7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Great progress, my friend @gblair!
Great job at the interior with the typical comment that, sadly, not a lot will be seen (but us followers will know 🙂 ).
Looking forward to your progress!

I made sure all of the sub-assemblies were ready and then started adding them to the fuselage. Still a lot of test-fitting and adjusting going on, but everything seems to fit together. Added some Tamiya tape seatbelts to the cockpit and painted some seatbelts on the passenger seats. I decided not to add any shoulder harnesses to the pilot seats.

Took some time off to visit our long-awaited new house which has been under construction since last November. Manpower and supply shortages due to Covid have really slowed things down, but it looks like we are in the last stretch.

Everyone stay safe.

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten). This Special Hobby kit really has been nice, although it still needs a lot of fit-checking. I wouldn't build them for a long time because they had vacuform canopies. Looking forward to my hobby room, which is actually a room added in the attic. We combined two rooms downstairs into one giant room for my wife's hobbies, and I get the one upstairs for my models and trains. It is nice to be able to make changes to the floorplan before the building starts.

Great, solid progress, my friend @gblair. The wing/fuselage joint came as a reminder that it still is a limited run kit that might require to go at times those extra miles.
Looking forward to this great build!

George, @gblair
I have not been logged on here for a little over a week. Today I happened to notice that you have started this build. It is already off to a great start ! I think I have a picture of the plane that was stationed at Kimpo airfield in Korea during WW2. Going from memory, it was a two color green with a gray underside. One of the greens was your typical "Mitsubishi" green with a bluish tint and the other color came very close to Olive Drab... of course the picture "could" have been colorized too... but I thought it looked cool. I'll see if I can dig it up for you.

The plane they pulled from a lake in Japan was like a time capsule... all of the original colors were mostly still intact.

Good luck with your house construction. It looks like they are making some good progress on your hobby room. That is going to be one fantastic "man cave / hobby room" when it is finished !

Stay safe.

Update... aha I found the picture !

I got some stuff done today.

The wings have a small fillet on each side of the engine that closes a small hole next to the wing. It basically acts as a filler between the forward part of the engine pod and the wing. Unfortunately, these pieces didn't fit and required a lot of cutting and shaping, followed by filler and sanding. Finally they are all smooth and sanded, but some panel lines disappeared. I have never had much luck using the usual tools to replace the panel lines. I always end up skating across the plastic, which results in more filling and sanding. I came across some photoetch blades from Tamiya that are basically miniature saws that cut panel lines. Gave it a try and I like it, so far. Seems more controllable.

With that done, I hit the fuselage and canopy with filler, smoothing everything with various grades of sandpaper, When that was done, I attached the wings and horizontal stabilizers. Things look pretty good, and now it is just a matter of waiting for things to dry.

Done for now. It may be a few days before I can get anything new done. I have been having trouble with one of my hands, and the orthopedic doctor gave me a couple of injections in the joints in my thumb with something that is supposed to keep my thumb from locking up. So, I figure it will be a couple of days before my hand is useful for building again. Everyone stay safe. :o)

6 additional images. Click to enlarge.

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten). It seems I always glue something and then reallize I need something to brace it up.