Had to get out the beatin' stick last night on this one. I was about to say "over-engineered", in the style of some Eduard kits, as every part has a very definite place to slot into. Great, if it all lines up. I'm not sure how I would have built it any differently, but, my cockpit tub was too wide, causing some problems further on down the line.
gap, underside
gap, topside
Coming together, needed several sessions of finger-squeezing the rounded areas & clamping the flatter areas, while applying Tamiya's Extra Thin cement. Love that stuff, needed it here. You'll notice that I've created my own secondary problem though, the IP and shroud are NOT in place. My cockpit tub, as narrow as it was, was too wide to give me a good attachment point. But fitting the tub was so difficult that adding that part to the inside of one fuselage half was also out of the question.
The compressor fan face & trunking, fit in there just so. Probably a good thing it was engineered this way, gave me more surfaces to attach the cranky fuselage halves to, less risk of them pulling apart I supposed.
Decent recovery considering I was seconds away from drifting this thing across the room. Note the glue-y fingerprint. Of course.
Wings were a straight-forward bottom section & 2 upper halves. Starting to look like a Swift now. Reminding me again that I really DO like the shape of this machine.
Slight step at the rear of that lower wing section. Kinda surprised there wasn't a bit of styrene for it to sit on. That being said, if I wasn't in such a foul mood I would have added a tab myself.
And a slight gap at the front, nothing serious though.
Ready for a putty & sanding session today. After all that, most joins are pretty close, but need some help before three paint starts flying.
I am a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, smothered in Canadian bacon.