She is coming along nicely Spiros! Some TLC and she will be a showpiece fit for any competition table!

Now, tell me my friend, does the LqS start to outrun the kit-styrene? Looks like you could almost just sculpt a plane out of LqS. Nah - just kidding, great stuff @fiveten, such a brave build you got going here!

Wow, zooming right along, Spiros. You are putting a lot of vigorous effort into this kit. I have two of these in my stash. One is the original Matchbox, the other the Revell re-boxed tanker. I examined the model very carefully and worked on it a bit. Because I had a spare kit, I decided to be bolder about the intakes than I would have with only one kit (utter failure could be remedied the second time around). Anyway, for what it's worth, I decided to cut out some of the fences in the intakes completely and replace them with solid scratch-built pieces (i.e. with no center join). For fatter fences of more complex shape, I decided the upper and lower pieces could be cut out, joined together and reinserted with the center join already sanded and smoothed (so only needing filling out at the top and bottom). Surgery could still be done at the stage you are at with a razor saw and the intakes closed. In fact it is easier to fit them inside again with the intake closed so it may be the best stage. Personally, I found it unimaginably difficult to join the upper and lower bits inside the closed intake, given the sanding involved in a confined space necessary to smooth out multiple joints. Clearly, you are a braver man than I was in getting this far and I am sure you will solve this one way or another. I have seen some really good builds on-line of the Matchbox kit (several with red FOD intake covers and some with fixed intakes). I hope you don't mind my humble suggestion on avoiding headaches with the fences. Otherwise, I am sure your Victor will look great. BTW, I chickened out on my build and bought the Airfix version as soon as it came out. I also put my Mach 2 Valiant in the garage as soon as Airfix released theirs. Life is just too short for Mach 2 kits.

Thanks, my friends @coling and @yellow10!

Yep, replacing the thin intake fillets and smoothing-reinserting the thicker ones looks to be a most attractive option...and I believe it is at this stage that it can be appropriately done.

After finishing subassemblies smoothing and preparation (and, boy, they require quite a lor...), I'll have a "look" at those intakes...

You’re really making great progress on this, Spiros.

Excellent craftsmanship, Spiros. The "prison escape tools" idea is kind of an apt metaphor. It takes about that much patience and slightly crazy ambition to file through those bars. But it worked. This already looks far better than anything I have seen done with these intakes on the Internet (or that I accomplished). It is also living proof of the value of liquified styrene as a filler and a glue. Only that kind of substance could get all the fences to stay even and anchored in place while you ground away at them. I could never get them to all line up together on that kit to begin with. Anyway, great job. This is going to be a triumph of man over stubborn plastic when its done and well worth the effort.

Coming along nicely Spiros my friend, keep up the good work, I sold my kit several years ago and now have the Airfix kit, it won't be done for this GB though, I may do a Harrier !