It took a lot of effort, patience and determination to finish this kit. This is an early release of Academy and understandably suffers from a lot of inaccuracies. Corrections and modifications made are included here as guide for those interested to build one.
Reshaped top turret, scratchbuilt football antenna, reshaped cowlings and props, repositioned and opened cheek windows
Added wing and wingtip vents, crew rear door, radio op window, waist window and transparency, dorsal antenna
All machine guns replaced with gauge 26 syringe needles, rear cockpit window added
Corrected contour of tail dorsal fin. Kit has a kind of angle bend at mid dorsal fin instead of smooth arc. Built it up with putty and sanded to the right contour
Scratchbuilt detailed undercarriage. Corrected shape of ball turret as kit came with dome-shaped one, ball turret has flat sides. Added wing leading edge intakes/openings.
Corrected Cheyenne tail turret. Another view of the corrected dorsal fin.
Staggered the waist gun positions because it is on OLe Doodle Bug. Added wing landing lights. Rescribed wing and fuselage panel lines.
The fuselage has this 'squarish' look so I sanded it to a more rounded shape. Good thing the plastic is thick to allow heavy sanding.
The front end of the engines are also 'squarish' so I sanded them to a rounded shape. The cowl flaps are represented by oversized raised lines so I sanded them and inscribed the detail.
The rim of the main wheel is concave but in the kit the rim is protruding proudly from the tire so I have to correct that also. Scratchbuilt landing gear legs based on B-17 Walkaround. The propellers are also thick and triangular looking so I sanded them to as close as paddle-looking blade as possible.
One thing remarkable is the decal sheet, conforms well even the red checkers on the tail.
It took several years ( on and off) to finish this Fort but I am glad I did and I am happy with the result. It even got me a second place trophy in a local model contest. Cheers.