Hi Jay. You are off to a good start. The cockpit looks great. You have succeeded in making all that raised details stand out creating a realistic looking cockpit. I am looking forward to your progress on this build. Well done.

Your start on this beautiful aircraft is great, Jay @ssgt
The interior looks very detailed.

The Fuselage halves have been joined together.

5 additional images. Click to enlarge.

Thanks , Spiros @fiveten !

Monogram really put a lot of thought in to designing their kits, more so then some newer ones I’ve come across .

Nice!

Jay Mitchell (@ssgt)
Nice work here ! Older Monogram kits rule ! I really like what you are doing with your "Thud". I'm looking forward to the next installment.

The wings are now attached to the fuselage, the drop tanks are assembled. The wings fit excellent when attached to the fuselage, with only very minor areas needing filled.

I also started painting the loud end of the aircraft. For much of it I blended together silver & black “ Rub n buff”, an old school, low tech approach . The inside was painted black with some dry brushed silver paint to highlight the detail on the turbine face plate at the back of the engine.

It’s going together well, there are some seams to deal with, which seems normal. However, there are no large gaps to contend with.
The drop tanks are the worst area as far as seams go. It seems like there is a slight step between the two halves in places.