Looking good. There is something about Italian aircraft that appeals to me, even more so one with meatballs... get it, Italians, meatballs... I'll walk myself out.

Nice build so far Spiros! Very interesting plane.

Throttle up!

Having prioritized the Aegean Ghost F-16, my Cicogna was left idling for a good two weeks...

The Great news is that many amazing new entries have arised to our Louis's @lgardner wondeful Empire of Japan Group Build!

So, here she is throttling up again!

As said in previous postings, wheel wells were non-existant, so I fabricated some kind of wheel well. Not liking the looks (too many gaps etc), I refabricated them by adding a "Π" shaped piece of sheet styrene, which will form the (let us call it) well main body. I then attached a suitably cut piece at the front and the result is this:

I will leave the aft part "as is", since it is too much work to box it. The fact is that it is practically invisible, whatever sight of it being blocked by the aft gear strut.

Tiny amounts of liquefied styrene were used to secure and strengthen those flimsy well "walls".

Upon glue curing, I will add some stretched sprue ribbing to make the bland walls look more "interesting".

Thanks for stopping by!

Spiros, @fiveten
I am sorry that I missed your F-16 build during it's construction until the final postings. You have a very high output of builds, and each one looks exceptional. By the looks of things with this one, and how it is moving along at such a fantastic pace, you should probably have QC1 and QC2 on standby, with ice cream at the ready ! Your decision to box in the wheel wells was a good one.

Full Throttle Up, Approaching V1... over.

Moving on

I added the moving surfaces, with the elevators set at about 20deg droop, as were often seen in pics (they were seen "neutral" very often, as well, however I believe they look more interesting drroped):
The ventral gondola was also attached, in retracted position:
As stated above, this is definitely not your super-duper 2020 1/72 style kit, but, I have to say that it has so far exceeded my expectations form a 1972 era mold.
Thanks for stopping by!

Very nice scratch building and details work, this is coming together beautifully.

Thanks my friends @wkubacki and @lgardner!
I am on preparations to attach, blend and mask the intricate front clear part, so I can escort this beauty to the paint shop!

Spiros @fiveten that’s a genuine good work improving the wheel bays! And you are quite right about the surface texture of some old kits living up to today’s standards. Just recall the old Mania kit of the Ki-27 several iModelers posted here...it’s a 70’s kit too.

Now, the clear parts are definitely not as good, and I bet some pre cut masks would save you a lot of work and eyesight ;-). Great work so far, looking up for the paintwork