Great photo, Robert. I'll bet it sure brings back memories. You might be right about ending up in the brig. I had a small incident when the first F-15's got to Luke and I ended up kissing the concrete. The white diagrams show the large box/panel sitting right on top of the rear seater's instrument panel, but my problem is what is on the other side. No one ever shows the back side of the panel, probably because that's not the interesting side. Thanks for the help.

Got a little more work done today. I started assembling the fuselage. You need to study the parts and the instructions (I know using the instructions is heresy, but it turns out it does make a difference in this case). There are several parts in the assembly of the fuselage that absolutely need to be added in a certain order because they won't go in later.

All of the attachment points are very positive and firm. The cockpit assembly went in first, followed by the lower metal tail section of the rear fuselage.

I test fitted the upper part of the fuselage and found that the additional parts added to the cockpit made the forward part of the fuselage reluctant to close. I did a little sanding which slightly eased the fit and so I proceeded with gluing the upper fuselage to the lower fuselage. The fit on the rear of the fuselage was terrific, but I noticed after everything was glued that the cockpit forced the upper part of the fuselage on one side out slightly, resulting in a very small step between the white and gray parts on the forward left fuselage. I think a little clamping and internal glue may eliminate it.

There is some good news here! Everything fit so tightly that the instrument assembly that had no back detail popped off the rear instrument panel. It was a clean separation, so now I can fix the missing back of the panel on the workbench instead of on the model, and I get to fix the small angle in the panel from when I initially glued it. Another big plus: you can add the seats after everything is built and painted. So I get to delay adding all of those straps and belts to the seats for a few more days. Yeah!

I am still impressed with the fit and engineering of this kit. The manufacturers seem to have anticipated my ham-fisted skills at every level. The sprue attachment points on many of the parts is on a face that mates with another part and will be out-of-sight when glued. Very cool. They are so conscientious that there are several places in the instructions where they remind you to remove the attachment points before assembling the adjoining part. Almost dummy-proof, which is great for me.

When I built the Academy press-fit F/A-18, I also found that kit to be well-engineered. The fit was also so good that I could leave parts off to aid in painting.

Academy really knows what they're doing with this series.

Your work so far looks great. I'll admit you have far more patience with PE parts that I could ever muster...

Mike

A little more work today. I hate to admit it, but I don't usually do a lot of test fitting, but for once I did some test fitting and it proved useful. While I was staring at the large empty photoetch box sitting on top of the rear instrument panel trying to figure out what to put behind, I began to wonder if it might be too high. I tried the canopy and found that the box prevented the canopy from closing by about 1/16 of an inch. Not a lot, but nearly a mile in this scale.

No problem, I told myself. I can simply cut the photoetch down a little to allow the canopy to close. Well, let's say cutting the photoetch wasn't as successful as I might have hoped. The painted portion of the panel separated from the actual metal itself, so nothing left but a piece of shiny metal and some painted stuff that wasn't going to be reuseable. I decided to scratchbuild a replacement using some plastic strip and some photoetch from the scrap box. I actually found a reference photo showing what was on the other side of the rear instrument panel in question, which turned out to be some round backs to the instruments and some wires. I have some really small diameter aluminum tube that I use for 1/48 machine guns which should work well for the back of the panel. It's interesting, sort of, that by the time I get done with the replacement it will look almost exactly like the part of the panel that Eduard had me remove to add the big giant box.

The seam on the nose of the aircraft that was bulged out a little because of all the stuff I added to the cockpit closed up nicely. The design of the engine trunk made it easy to paint the interior white. Almost forgot to add some weight in the nose, but I found that I have a 3/8 ounce fishing sinker that fits nicely in the nose.

The last of the photoetch in the Eduard Zoom set consists of 18 parts for each ejection seat. I had been putting this off, because I find working with very small photoetch very unrelaxing. An hour later I had one seat completed. I have to admit that these parts make a big difference. Check out the before and after photos of the seats below. I will finish the second seat as soon as my hands and eyes recover.

All that stuff definitely spruses up the seats. My favorite tactic for saving a lot of that work is plunking a pilot down on the seat!

I close the canopy, my shaky fingers and all. The seat is great! , just ready for the plane captain to put the seven safety pins in.

Coming along very nicely. Seats look fantastic with the PE additions.

Comin' along nicely - thank you for pointing out the need for a pre-assembly wash of the sprue.