We actually had winter here this year and it's putting a huge crimp in my modeling. Finally had a nice weekend, so I was able to get some more done on the Phantom. The big project was the intakes, the main sections of which are molded as separate parts from the fuselage. The splitter plate is glued to the fuselage, and the intake mates to that on the top and to the forward end of the wing at the bottom. The top join was pretty good, but the lower edge that meets the wing was horrible, ending up with a pretty sizable gap. This was filled with sheet styrene secured with thin liquid cement. The excess was then trimmed off and sanded smooth.
Next came the stabilzers, which required a lot of trimming and sanding to get them to fit. And even that wasn't great, requiring some thick superglue to attach them and filling the seam between the stabs and the fuselage. But the airframe is now complete, and after a little polishing to get rid of the scratches, will be ready for paint. That will have to wait until I get my compressor replaced, hopefully in a few weeks. Guess I'll just have to start another kit off the stash to kill some time...
