I started doing the putty and sanding rotation, and I think the fuselage is close to being done. I added the window in the top of the fuselage spine to add some strength to the assembly. I glued the upper wings to the one-piece lower wing and discovered a large gap. The wing looks flat, and I was tempted to pull the wings up to add some dihedral and close the gap, but luckily I checked a 3-view and discovered the wings didn't have much dihedral. I think I may use John's (@johnb) idea and glue some sheet styrene in the gap. This not only helps fill the gap, but also adds a little strength to the wing/fuselage joint. It will still need a little more dihedral than is currently there. The cowling, which is in 2 pieces, didn't really fit together well, so I am in the midst of several rounds of putty, sand, and check. Tomorrow is planned as a day out, but I still hope to get some stuff done. Cheers.

7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Nice progress - lots of fun in these limited edition / early SpecialHobby kits 🙂

An airworthy D.XXI: how amazing! Thanks for sharing the link, my friend @johnb!

Thanks for sharing this too, my friend @johnb!

I got the wings mounted to the fuselage today. The rear part of the wing mated nicely with the fuselage, but the front portion of the wing was supposed to be a butt-joint to the fuselage, with nothing to keep it from sliding deeper into the fuselage than required. I think the kit may have been designed to have the forward part of the cockpit floor serve as a bulkhead for the forward part of the wing, but I couldn't find any way to make the fuselage floor fit in the opening and still have any surface left to glue the wing. In any case, I built some supports that I glued to the wing that holds everything in the correct position. Problem solved.

I puttied and sanded the window on the spine since it won't be needed on this version of the plane. Thanks to John (@johnb) for pointing out that this version of the D.XXI didn't have the window in the upper spine. The instructions don't say anything about the Dutch version not using this window, even though it has parts for several different versions. The color painting diagrams for this model show only the Finnish version, so maybe that's all you are supposed to build from this kit, even though it has the parts for 3 different country versions.

Thanks, John (@johnb). I think I got spoiled by the Dora Wings kit I just built.

Nice correction with the wing support indeed , my friend @gblair! I strangely missed that update, I only saw it today, and, while not 100% sure, it seems it had not appeared but only today. I think it happens with some postings from time to time. Anyway...

Ahhh, those filling and sanding loops! The seem everlasting with some kits!

You are doing an excellent job there, this will be a superb model once done.

Great progress on this sweet fighter! It is indeed in need of a lot of research to make the proper version as SH put all the details needed for country-specific versions in their packages @gblair. There are of course some differences in resin for the different versions, like the engines, and as you have seen from the SBS cockpits they were very country-specific.